Russian troops running out of weapons in Ukraine: British spy chief

LONDON

Russian troops in Ukraine are running out of weapons and the Russian people now realize that the invasion of Ukraine was a badly judged move, the head of Britain’s cyber intelligence unit GCHQ said Tuesday.

“We know, and Russian commanders on the ground know, that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Sir Jeremy Fleming said in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think-tank in London.

“Russia’s forces are exhausted. The use of prisoners to reinforce, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation,” he said.

The spy chief also said that ordinary Russians were “fleeing the draft, realizing they can no longer travel.”

“They know their access to modern technologies and external influences will be drastically restricted. And they’re feeling the extent of the dreadful human cost of his war of choice,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fleming said on the possibility of the use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia that he believes that “Russian doctrine and Putin’s approach to this war would see that being hopefully a long way off.”

Fleming’s speech came a day after Russia launched dozens of missiles on Ukrainian cities in what Putin said was retaliation for an explosion a day earlier on the Kerch Bridge, which connects occupied Crimea to Russia.