Putin and one of his closest aides have fallen out, US intel says, as officials say he is being fed bad information about the Ukraine war

According to US intelligence, Russian President Putin and one of his closest advisors have fallen out over the war in Ukraine.

US officials told The New York Times that there was a rift between Putin and Shoigu.

Shoigu has been a member of Putin's inner circle for many years, and took a vacation with him in March 2021.

The US believes that Shoigu and his subordinates have been lying about the war for Putin.

Kirby said that they would agree with the conclusion that Mr. Putin has not been fully informed by his Ministry of Defense.

US officials told The Times that Putin was unaware that Russia was using conscripts and that some of them had been killed.

The tension between Putin and Shoigu is still there, according to The Times source.

Shoigu vanished from public on March 11 and reappeared 12 days later.

According to The Times, some US officials think that senior Russian officials are scared of being blamed for the war in Ukraine because they feel that they will be held responsible.

Sir Jeremy Fleming, head of the UK's GCHQ intelligence agency, said on Thursday that Putin's advisors are afraid to tell him the truth.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Russian officials were unwilling to give accurate information.

The heels of autocracies is that you don't have people in those systems who can speak truth to power.

Ukrainian media reported earlier this month that some of Putin's top officials were being replaced, with one analyst saying that they may have given Putin overly optimistic assessments of Russian advances.