U.K. Spy Chief Says Russia's Putin Misjudged Ukrainians' Resistance
- 00:01[CC may contain inaccuracies] Believe it or not it's only 36 days since Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked and premeditated attack on Ukraine.
- 00:12It's been shocking in every sense of the word. But it wasn't surprising.
- 00:18We've seen this strategy before. We saw the intelligence picture building
- 00:24and now we're seeing Putin trying to follow through on his plan. But it is failing
- 00:32and his Plan B has been more about barbarity against civilians and cities.
- 00:40It's clear that he plays by different moral and legal rules. Far too many Ukrainians and Russians have already lost their lives.
- 00:49And beyond this toll many many more have had their lives shattered. The UN estimate is that in just over a month more
- 00:57than 10 million people have already fled their homes. It's a humanitarian crisis that need never have happened. And
- 01:07it's not over yet. It increasingly looks like Putin has massively misjudged the situation.
- 01:14It's clear he's misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people. He underestimated the strength of the coalition. His
- 01:22actions would galvanize. He underplayed the economic consequences of the sanctions regime
- 01:30and he overestimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory.
- 01:37We've seen Russian soldiers short of weapons and morale refusing to carry out orders sabotaging their own equipment and even
- 01:48accidentally shooting down their own aircraft. And even though we believe Putin's advisers are afraid to tell
- 01:56him the truth what's going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be
- 02:03crystal clear to the regime. This week the Russian MMD stated publicly that they will drastically reduce combat operations
- 02:11around chief and it and a city in the north. It looked like they had been forced
- 02:20to make a significant change. But then they proceeded to launch attacks in both those places.
- 02:29Mixed messages or deliberate misinformation. We'll have to see how it unfolds.
- 02:37But in any event it all adds up to the strategic miscalculation that our leaders welcomed Putin. It would be.
- 02:46It's become his personal war with the cost being paid by innocent people in Ukraine and
- 02:52increasingly by ordinary Russians to suit the National Cyber Security Center part of research. We've
- 03:00seen sustained intent from Russia to disrupt Ukrainian government and military systems. We've seen what looks like some
- 03:08spillover from activity affecting surrounding countries. And we've certainly seen indications which suggest Russia's
- 03:17cyber actors are looking for targets in the countries that oppose their actions.
