“This means that the war could last for a long time,” said the director of US intelligence.
The head of the United States Intelligence Service Avril Haynes warned that Vladimir Putin was still seeking to occupy most of Ukraine. However, Moscow’s troops have been so weakened by the fierce fighting that the United States believes that territorial gains will be a time-consuming affair and that “The picture remains quite bleak.”
“This means that the war could last for a long time,” she told the BBC.
In March, Moscow resumed its efforts to occupy Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, after failing to occupy Kyiv and other cities. Mr Putin still has the same goals he had at the beginning of the conflict, the US intelligence chief said, adding that he would occupy most of Ukraine. But, he clarified, Russia is unlikely to achieve this goal soon.
“We understand a dimension “Between Putin’s short-term military goals in this area and the capability of his military, a kind of mismatch between his ambitions and what the military is capable of achieving,” he told a US Commerce Department conference.
He said the intelligence services are watching three scenarios about how the war could unfold, most likely a slow conflict with Russia making “marginal gains, no progress.”
Other, less likely scenarios include a significant Russian advance on the front, or a stabilization of the lines of conflict with Ukraine gaining small territorial gains. This, he warned, could mean that Moscow is more dependent from “asymmetric tools” to hit its enemies, including cyber attacks, energy control efforts, and even nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, the UK government is set to provide an additional 1 1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, almost doubling its support to date. Only the United States has provided more military assistance to Ukraine than the United Kingdom.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky states that his country needs about $ 5 billion a month to fund the war against Russia.
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