Putin is increasingly aware of how poorly his military is doing in Ukraine, US intel chief says

• Putin had initially been kept in the dark about Russia's failures in Ukraine, earlier reports said.
• But the US director of national intelligence said Saturday that he is "becoming more informed."

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is increasingly aware of how poorly his military is doing in Ukraine, US National Intelligence Director Avril Haines said on Saturday.

Speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Haines said Putin was "surprised" at his military's disappointing performance in Ukraine following its invasion in February.

"I do think he is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia," Haines said, according to NBC News. "But it's still not clear to us that he has a full picture at this stage of just how challenged they are."

Haines' comments come after reports that Putin's military advisors had been shielding him from what is happening on the ground in Ukraine.

In March — one month after Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — a US intelligence official told reporters that they believe that Putin "is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth."

In September, it was reported that Putin was playing a more active role in the war in Ukraine, becoming more hands-on with his commanders.

Haines said on Saturday that Putin's political objectives to capture Ukraine have not changed despite him becoming more aware of Russia's military failures.

She said it is unclear whether he would still accept scaled-back military ambitions, adding: "I think our analysts would say he may be willing to do that on a temporary basis with the idea that he might then come back at this issue at a later time," according to NBC News.

Russia continues to experience battlefield setbacks. In the last few months, Putin's troops have been forced to retreat from the Kharkiv region, from Kherson Oblast, and from parts of the Russian-occupied Donbas region.