Russia ‘is trying to salvage a military fiasco’

The White House today reacted with deep skepticism to Russia’s promise to reduce violence in Ukraine as a means of paving the way for possible peace talks, with government officials suggesting that the Kremlin was simply redirecting, not ending, its invasion.

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Putin’s campaign has gone so unexpectedly poorly that U.S. officials have begun reviewing their own intelligence assessments to determine how they could have so badly misjudged the strength of the Russian military. Despite pouring billions of dollars into modernizing Russia’s military, Putin’s forces have been saddled with poor equipment, communications and morale — all leading to, so far, a stalemate against a much smaller and overmatched foe.

To that point, one U.S. official bluntly said: “The Russians really fucked this up.”

Experts agreed. “It's a huge retreat from Putin's initial war aims,” said JEFFREY EDMONDS, former Russia director on BARACK OBAMA's National Security Council and now adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank. “This is a huge defeat to Putin's maximalist initial goals. The Russian leadership is trying to salvage a military fiasco.”

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