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The plan to seize the capital of Ukraine in the first two days of Russia's invasion has been a complete failure, thrown off course by a fierce Ukrainian resistance, poor planning and a series of profound miscalculations.

As the war in Ukraine drags on for weeks, months or even years, top U.S. intelligence officials expect an isolated and angry Putin to double down on his brutality. It could be his downfall.

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He has no sustainable political end game in the face of what is going to continue to be fierce resistance from the Ukrainians.

  • The U.S. intelligence community does not believe that a pro-Russian regime can stay in power if the Ukrainian people capitulate.

  • According to the U.S., between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have already been killed, far in excess of what Putin anticipated.

  • McDonald's, Starbucks and Coca-Cola were among the private companies that stopped Russian sales on Tuesday because of the sanctions.

The Director of National Intelligence testified that Putin is unlikely to be deterred despite the setbacks.

  • The people who will suffer the most are Ukrainian civilians, who are already seeing the vicious tactics Putin used to achieve his military aims.

  • The upside is that what Putin might be willing to accept as a victory may change over time, given the significant costs he is incurring.

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  • The director of the CIA said that Putin does not have a sustainable end game for his invasion of Russia. Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Putin is turning Russia into a propaganda bubble.

  • The U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Wednesday that Russian forces were defeated in key areas two weeks into the unprovoked invasion.

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  • There has been a decrease in Russian air activity over the last few days.

  • A source tells Russian journalist Farida Rustamova that they are carefully enunciating the word.

  • An Indian student is in Ukraine. According to a report in The Kyiv Independent, a 21-year-old student from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is a part of the International Legion. Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government put together a paramilitary force to fight Russian forces.

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  • Zelenskyy said in an address Wednesday that nothing is waiting for him.

  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he doesn't think there will be a nuclear war.

  • The director of the CIA believes that Putin is losing the information war in Ukraine and that he is not able to rally support at home and abroad for his war of aggression. The U.S. has adopted a novel approach to debunk Russia's narratives about Ukraine.

  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a reporter that his country did not attack Ukraine.

  • The Islamic State confirmed on Thursday the death of its leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi and its spokesman Abu Hamza Al-Quraishi. Quraishi, a religious scholar and soldier in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's army who led IS from the shadows for a little over two years, died in a U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria in February. Two years ago, the violent Sunni Muslim group lost its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a similar raid.

  • The Ministry of Defence confirms a small number of soldiers have disobeyed orders.

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  • China is trying to insulate itself from economic sanctions on Moscow by relaxing exchange rate controls. The margin by which the ruble is allowed to fluctuate against the yuan in state-controlled daily trading will be doubled to 10% above or below the opening price, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. Russia's central bank was unable to use its foreign currency reserves to defend the exchange rate.

  • Russia published a draft law on Thursday that could prevent its airlines from returning leased aircraft, raising the stakes in a battle with Western finance over $10 billion of jets. The game of cat-and-mouse has been going on since sanctions were imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Russian airlines will pay their lease in roubles throughout the year of 2022.

  • Significant losses in personnel and equipment were caused to a Russian tank battalion in the village of Skybyn, on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv, according to the Defense Intelligence Service of Ukraine. The intelligence service said the attack caused a retreat of Russian forces and that a Russian colonel died in the attack. Storyful has not been able to confirm this information. Storyful gives a credit to DI_Ukraine.

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  • Around a dozen Russian aircraft are stuck at Swiss airports by the airspace being closed in many European countries to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, according to the civil aviation authority in Switzerland.

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    The congressman tried to walk back his comments.

  • "Not a single moment of this rings a bell," said Hanks of the comment.

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  • General Dmytro Marchenko said that Ukrainian resistance is not phased by Russian soldiers.

  • The intelligence community has been frustrated by the plans of Russia.

  • The vehicle ran off the road and went over a cliff.