The dramatic lengths the Kremlin has undertaken to protect Putin from the backlash of Russia’s stunning failures in Ukraine threaten to undermine his influence at home and abroad.

The Kremlin is manufacturing a crisis with its Ministry of Defense in an attempt to distance President Vladimir Putin from the stunning retreats and other embarrassing battlefield failures in Ukraine in recent days, according to a new analysis.

The Institute for the Study of War, an independent think tank, noted that Russia has acknowledged its military’s defeat around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, following a surprise and startlingly effective Ukrainian counteroffensive beginning last week. That recognition breaks from the Kremlin’s prior practices of never admitting to tactical failures, including the rationale for its troops’ inability to advance on Kyiv in the first days of the invasion more than six months ago – a maneuver that Putin and his top advisers believed would topple the government in Kyiv in less than a week – or its withdrawal from Snake Island, a strategically critical point in the Black Sea.

“Kremlin sources are now working to clear Putin of any responsibility for the defeat, instead blaming the loss of almost all of occupied Kharkiv Oblast on underinformed military advisors within Putin’s circle,” the institute noted in one of its regular analyses published late Tuesday.