Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun purging the top ranks of the military and intelligence sectors, firing several generals and placing two high ranking spies under house arrest.
The moves came after a disastrous week for Russian forces in Ukraine. So far, thousands of Russian soldiers have reportedly been killed in the three weeks of fighting, including around 10 high ranking officers.
According to the Washington Examiner, Putin appears to be blaming the inability of Russian forces to quickly defeat Ukrainian defenses on the foreign intelligence arm of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Reports state that Putin appears to be placing blame on the agency, known as the Fifth Service, for convincing the Russian leader that winning a war with Ukraine would be quick and easy.
On Friday, the Fifth Service’s head, Sergey Beseda, and its deputy, Anatoly Bolyukh, were both placed under house arrest for providing Putin with faulty intelligence, Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov reported.
Soldatov stated that the Fifth Service provided Putin with briefings about the political situation in Ukraine leading up the invasion which at this point in the conflict Putin has realized were incorrect and written to curry his favor.
Soldatov reported that “the Fifth Service simply told him what he wanted to hear."
The UK Times confirmed that Beseda and Bolyukh were arrested, quoting exiled Russian activist Vladimir Osechkin.
“Putin is reportedly conducting an internal purge of general offers and intelligence personnel and recalibrating Russia’s war effort to sustain combat operations far longer than the Kremlin initially planned,” said Washington DC think tank the Institute for the Study of War in a statement. “Russia likely requires a new wave of combat-effective reservists or recruits in a short period of time to achieve its objectives in Ukraine but is unlikely to be able to generate such a wave. Russian aircraft likely conducted an attempted false-flag attack on Belarusian territory on March 11.”
The think tank added that recent moves point to Russian attempts to drag Belarus into the war.
“The Kremlin is likely pressuring Belarus to enter the war in Ukraine to support Russian forces, though Belarusian President Lukashenko is likely attempting to delay or prevent his entry into the war to avoid costly Western sanctions and Belarusian combat losses. The Kremlin additionally announced plans on March 11 to deploy foreign fighters, including up to 16,000 Syrian fighters, to Ukraine. The Kremlin is highly unlikely to abandon its continuing main effort to encircle and capture Kyiv and will continue to feed replacements and reinforcements into this operation.”