The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed American intelligence exhibiting that President Vladimir V. Putin has been misinformed about his army’s struggles in Ukraine, and warned that such a “complete misunderstanding” of the scenario in Moscow may have “bad consequences.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, additionally performed down the notion that a assembly between Mr. Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine may happen in April.
“It turns out that neither the State Department nor the Pentagon have real information about what is happening in the Kremlin,” Mr. Peskov advised reporters. “They do not understand President Putin, they do not understand the decision-making mechanism and they do not understand the efforts of our work.”
Mr. Peskov was responding to declassified U.S. intelligence launched on Wednesday that American officers claimed confirmed rising stress between Mr. Putin and the Ministry of Defense, together with with the protection minister, Sergei Ok. Shoigu.
Some tensions have come into the open, corresponding to when Mr. Peskov stated on March 9 that some protection officers had disobeyed Mr. Putin’s directions to not ship conscripts into battle in Ukraine. And Mr. Shoigu’s destiny was the topic of widespread hypothesis when he was not seen publicly for a almost two-week stretch this month, earlier than he re-emerged final week.
But Mr. Peskov stated the United States was grossly misinformed.
“This is not only unfortunate, but also a cause for concern,” he stated.
Separately, Mr. Peskov stated that earlier than any assembly between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky may happen, a draft peace settlement would must be finalized and accepted by senior officers from either side. That appeared to barely backpedal from an accelerated timeline that the Kremlin’s chief negotiator laid out on the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul on Tuesday.
“Only after that can a meeting at the highest levels be discussed,” Mr. Peskov stated.