Russian soldiers: British spy chief says Russian soldiers are disobeying orders in Ukraine

Demoralised Russian troopers within the Ukraine had been refusing to hold out orders and sabotaging their very own gear and had by chance shot down their very own plane, a U.Ok. intelligence chief mentioned on Thursday.

Jeremy Fleming, who heads the GCHQ digital spy company, made the remarks at a speech within the Australian capital Canberra.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had apparently “massively misjudged” the invasion, he mentioned.

“It is clear he misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian folks. He underestimated the power of the coalition his actions would galvanise. He underplayed the financial penalties of the sanctions regime, and he overestimated the skills of his army to safe a fast victory,” Fleming mentioned.

“We have seen Russian troopers, in need of weapons and morale, refusing to hold out orders, sabotaging their very own gear and even by chance capturing down their very own plane,” Fleming added.

Though Putin’s advisers had been believed to be too afraid to inform the reality, the “extent of those misjudgments have to be crystal clear to the regime,” he mentioned.

Fleming warned that the Kremlin was attempting to find cyber targets and bringing in mercenaries to shore up its stalled army marketing campaign in Ukraine.

He praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “data operation” for being extremely efficient at countering Russia’s large disinformation drive spreading propaganda concerning the struggle.

Whereas there have been expectations that Russia would launch a significant cyberattack as a part of its army marketing campaign, Fleming mentioned such a transfer was by no means a central a part of Moscow’s normal playbook for struggle.