Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has been a "strategic blunder" that has weakened Russia and left it "increasingly isolated" on the world stage, according to the White House.
At a press conference on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Kate Bedingfield said the US has information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between the president and his military leadership.
“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,” she said.
“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," she said.
Bedingfield said the Russian leadership made an aggressive push toward Kyiv at the beginning of the invasion, but is now publicly trying to redefine the goals of their invasion to be different than they were at the outset.
When asked about some declassified American intelligence information that Putin had bad information from his military, she replied: “I think putting forward this information simply contributes to a sense that this has been a strategic error for them.”
“Again, I'm not going to characterise what they are thinking. I'm certainly not going to characterise how they may or may not use this information to make decisions. That's not my place. But I do think that making this information public contributes to an understanding that this has been a strategic failure for Russia,” the US official said.
Bedingfield said 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.
She reiterated that President Joe Biden has not been advocating for a policy of regime change in Moscow.
“What he said a couple of days ago was a statement of personal moral outrage, but we do not have a formal policy of regime change. What we are doing is continuing to impose unprecedented costs on Russia,” Bedingfield said.
“We are ensuring that Russia is paying for this choice. Putin himself has said that the cost, the impact of the sanctions, has been significant. So, we are continuing to focus on our strategy of making sure that we are providing security assistance to Ukraine and imposing significant costs on Russia for these choices,” she noted.
