Vladimir Putin's forces are making catastrophic blunders as troops are being led by a tiny number of inexperienced officers, Western officials believe.
It is thought each officer is attempting to command "hundreds" of soldiers with failure of leadership blamed for a massacre at a Russian base this weekend.
Sources say that stretched commanders have been swiftly promoted and lack battlefield experience.
By comparison there is a ratio of around one officer to 30 soldiers in the British Army.
At the weekend an attack on a Russian base which left at least 11 dead is thought to have been carried out in response to derogatory remarks about Muslims by "low level" Russian leadership.
Two gunmen opened fire on volunteers at a base in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, with at least 15 understood to be injured - and the real numbers could be higher.
Officials also believe that Russian forces - which have been targeting Ukraine's electricity network - are running out of high-precision, long-range missiles.
Instead they are turning to drones, with Western officials convinced Putin's invaders are no longer able to carry out the "saturating barrages" they did previously in the war.
They are "carefully" monitoring Iranian support for the Russian war effort amid fears it could supply missiles in the coming months.
Officials said that the Russians were increasingly resorting to Iranian Shahed drones to mount attacks because they were running low on stocks of cruise missiles.
However, the drones were not an effective like-for-like substitute as they carried relatively small explosive payloads and were susceptible to being brought down by Ukrainian air defences.
"It is increasingly evident that Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of attempting to destroy Ukraine's electricity network," one official said.
Earlier today UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly lashed out at "cowardly drone attacks".
He posted on Twitter : "These are the desperate acts of a man losing a war on the battlefield. It's why we sent air defence missiles.
"He won’t break the Ukrainians or our resolve to stand with them."
In an update earlier this week, the Ministry of Defence questioned Russia's capability to launch long-range attacks.
“ Russia ’s defence industry is probably incapable of producing advanced munitions at the rate they are being expended.
“These attacks represent a further degradation of Russia’s long-range missile stocks, which is likely to constrain their ability to strike the volume of targets they desire in future.”
