Putin felt misled by Russian military: WH

Washington, March 31 (IANS) A White House spokesperson said that US has information that Russian President Vladimir Putin "felt misled" by his country's military, which has resulted in "persistent tension" amid Moscow's ongoing invasion of Kiev.

When asked by a reporter during a briefing on Wednesday if the Russian President has bad information, as per declassified US intelligence, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said: "We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth.

"So it is increasingly clear that Putin's war has been a strategic blunder that has left Russia weaker over the long term and increasingly isolated on the world stage."

Bedingfield further claimed that Russia was "now publicly trying to redefine the goals of their invasion to be different than they were at the outset".

She also reiterated that the US will continue to pursue its strategy of "imposing severe costs on Russia and trying to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table".

At another briefing also on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that an uninformed Putin could result in a "less than faithful" effort at ending the conflict through peace negotiations, the BBC reported.

"The other thing is, you don't know how a leader like that is going to react to getting bad news," he said.

The statements come as Ukrainian forces are trying to take back areas seized by Russian troops since the invasion began on February 24.