Putin humiliated as top Russian general blasts failed Ukraine invasion

Vladimir Putin has been left humiliated after a former top commander of the Russian Army publicly blasted the country’s invasion of Ukraine for the first time. Vladimir Chirkin, the ex-commander-in-chief of Russia’s Ground Forces, has broken ranks to openly claim Russia’s initial invasion strategy was a failure, while also taking aim at one of Putin’s key right-hand men in the war – Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

He said the leadership had been assured by Russian intelligence services that up to 70% of Ukrainian’s would support his country, but admitted: “In reality, it was exactly the opposite.” Chirkin argued this was one of the crucial reasons that led to the collapse of the “three-day blitzkrieg”. The former top commander even conceded that Russian forces had “underestimated the enemy and overestimated themselves” in the Russia-Ukraine war, which was a significant contributor to their failure to seize Kyiv and the eventual retreat. The blame for the failed campaign, he claimed, should be placed on the “entire Russian intelligence community”.

Sergei Shoigu didn’t escape Chirkin’s criticism, who claimed Putin’s Defence Minister tried to “save face” after the humiliation by branding the retreat a “gesture of goodwill.”

It had even been the belief of the Kremlin that Russia could “take Kyiv in three days”, according to Chirkin.

Ukrainian political journalist Denys Kazansky reacted to the criticism, writing on X: “Chirkin effectively acknowledged the failure of the ‘special military operation’ and said Putin entered the war unprepared because he misjudged the situation, which resulted in heavy losses.”

This astonishing outburst from Chirkin comes with Donald Trump issuing a fiery eight-word message to Putin and the Kremlin after the future of the Ukraine peace talks was thrown into doubt.

The US president spoke as a Ukrainian delegation was meeting its US counterpart in Miami today, a few days after Americans and Russians met in Moscow to discuss peace terms.

Mr. Trump was asked by reporters how he thought future meetings might unfold. He responded: “I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing.”

This is despite the Republican previously describing the US-Russia summit as “reasonably good”, adding that he believes Putin “would like to end the war”.

Putin’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said “no compromise” had been reached during the five-hour meeting, with territorial concessions remaining the top issue.

He said Russia has a “critical and even negative attitude towards some of the proposals” brought forward by the US.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Russia was open to further talks, calling it “a normal working process towards finding a compromise”.

He added: “Something was accepted, while something was marked as unacceptable.”