Ukrainian war: Putin “fired eight generals and enraged at the FSB” over failures on the battlefield, says Kyiv

Vladimir Putin fired his top generals and “raged” at the FSB after his troops suffered a series of embarrassing defeats in the opening days of the war due to failed intelligence and poor strategy. Ukraine.

Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s security council, said “about eight” Russian commanders have been fired since the conflict began, while Moscow is trying to change its strategy after its attempt at “shock and awe” failed.

Putin is also said to be angry with the commanders of the FSB security service – which he once led – for handing him intelligence suggesting that Ukraine is weak, steeped in neo-Nazi groups and could easily despair if attacked.

Philip Ingram, a security expert and former senior British intelligence official, told the Times that Putin was clearly “very angry” and blamed his intelligence agencies.

“He blames them for giving him advice that led to poor decision-making in Ukraine,” he said.

As a result of this poor decision-making, Russia has suffered far greater casualties than expected in the two-week attack.

Moscow seemed to expect little resistance when it sent light forces backed by air strikes in the early days to seize key targets, but received punitive counterattacks.

Reliable numbers are hard to come by, but Ukraine believes Russia has lost up to 12,000 men in fourteen weeks. European intelligence estimates it lower – between 6,000 and 9,000 – and the US even lower, up to 3,000.

Whatever turns out to be accurate is almost certainly more than Putin expected when he launched the attack in hopes that the fighting would be over in just a few days.

“We clearly understand what plans the enemy has now,” Danilov said on Ukrainian state television today.

‘They have changed little since the start of the war, which they wanted to win in 2-3 days and march [into Kyiv]. This has not happened and never will.

‘They changed their leadership. They had about 8 generals removed from their posts for failing to complete the task. New ones have now been named.

“We clearly understand what is happening in the Russian Federation. In addition, I can say that they are desperate.”

It is not clear exactly why the Russian intelligence they received before the operation in Ukraine was so poor.

Andrei Soldatov, who has been monitoring Russia’s secret service for two decades, told the Times that one possibility is that the organization is simply not fit for its purpose.

Most FSB agents are involved in the service as abandoned jobs on the grounds that their parents or grandparents are agents, he said, and remove them from regular schools to educate themselves in the company.

This is unlike Western security services, which usually recruit from elite universities or colleges to ensure they get the “cream of the crop”.

Alternatively, the organization gathered good intelligence, but was simply too afraid to tell Putin the truth, instead correcting their reports to reassure him.

“The problem is that it’s too risky for Putin’s superiors to tell him what he doesn’t want to hear, so they adjust their information,” he said.

‘The tailoring probably takes place somewhere between the rank of colonel and general in the FSB.’

The new analysis came after observers said the Russian military – which in the early days of the conflict was trying to move quickly toward key targets – was turning tactics into a “medieval” siege used in other conflicts such as Syria.

Ukraine’s commanders say Russia’s progress has “slowed significantly” in recent days as its forces suffer losses, combined with a tactical transition to surrounding cities and bombing cities to submit.

Mariupol in the south has been surrounded and under heavy shelling for several days, and a maternity hospital in the city was bombed on Wednesday, killing three people, including a six-year-old girl, and injuring 17.

Kharkov and Sumy in the east were also shelled overnight, killing seven people – including three children – as Russian forces tried to encircle them.

Putin’s troops are also trying to break through to the outskirts of the capital Kyiv on Wednesday with two attacks on the city, both of which have collapsed.

One, via Brovary in the east, was tracked down by artillery and UAV attacks after being spotted moving along the main highway – with an intercepted radio chat indicating that a regimental commander had been killed.

In another, via Irpin in the west, clashes erupted overnight, but Kyiv said a counterattack took place on Thursday, with clashes taking place in the early hours.