Wars are planned in offices but fought on the ground, and the Russian army’s strategic blunders in the Ukraine war in particular point to insufficient control of its rank and file fighters.

After the start of the Moscow invasion on February 24, signs have emerged that many Russian soldiers have no clear idea of ??the war’s aims, and some initially thought they were simply being recruited for maneuvers.

“The Russian army is an army of lies,” General Thierry Burkhard, head of the French armed forces, told the AFP news agency in May.

“People lied by saying that the Ukrainian army would not fight, that the Russian armed forces were ready for war and that their leaders knew how to command,” he said.

Six months after the invasion, Western analysts still describe the Russian army as riddled with untruths and corruption and desperate to tell President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle what it wants to hear.

“High-ranking officers think only of their medals and how they are managing their careers. But the soldiers just want to survive,” said Alexander Grinberg of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

“Putin is demanding unrealistic results and no one is telling him the truth, even in private,” said Grinberg, a former member of Israel’s military intelligence service.

“Is it possible for a brave officer to dare to think outside the box? Sure, but he’ll be the exception and won’t do much on the ground… except maybe to limit damage and save some lives.”

The extent of Russia’s losses remains unclear. Ukraine says 50,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, with most Western sources saying that figure is probably too high, even if the actual number is extremely high.

Ukraine’s latest counter-offensive, which caught Russian forces off guard, was marked by reports of desertions, refusal to carry out orders and low morale, pointing to serious breakdowns in the chains of command.

The death or injury of Russian generals and officers has also taken its toll, experts say, as the army’s training programs appear to have deteriorated in recent years, making it harder to find competent replacements.

“They have a problem with training senior officers, particularly because there aren’t enough non-commissioned officers” who have risen and should be “experts in their field,” a senior French military chief told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Russia tends to promote mostly older soldiers, he said, “and when your only relationship with subordinates is a power relationship, when only the elders are promoted… it becomes complicated to launch an attack.”

The impact on morale will only worsen the longer the conflict lasts, notwithstanding Russia’s advantage in terms of sheer troop strength.

“An army is the sum of its competencies and capacities. Without a solid infrastructure for recruitment, training and innovation, the Russian total has shrunk significantly,” said French military historian Michel Goya.

“Russia’s maneuverability has been weakened, poorly replaced by smaller and less capable units,” he said.

Adding to the risks for Moscow is that a culture of dishonesty appears to have worked its way into the heart of its military machine.

“Russian army officers frequently lie to their superiors about the status of their unit,” said military historian and author Chris Owen.

He pointed to Ukrainian wiretaps by Russian soldiers describing false reports of combat successes, “and subsequent attacks launched on the basis of this false information.”

“By the time the reports get to the top of the chain — the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry and Putin himself — there’s a good chance they’ll be so distorted and inaccurate that the people running the war have a very unrealistic picture of what going on is the ground.”

Ukraine’s surprise counterattack has reignited debate over whether Putin will proceed with a general mobilization that would make it clear that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is in fact a war.

Instead, the government appears to be pushing hard to hire more mercenaries, particularly from paramilitary contractor Wagner, and also more regular army volunteers.

A video widely circulated on social media allegedly shows Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Putin ally suspected of funding the Wagner group, in a Russian prison yard offering contracts to convicts.

AFP has not confirmed its authenticity, but the man’s comments say: “If you serve six months, you’re free. If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we will execute you.”

For Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland, “while extremely chilling, this also signals a massive crisis in Russia’s attempts to recruit more soldiers.”