US National Intelligence Director Avril Gaines has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine, but his forces are so weakened by the war that they are likely to achieve little success in the near future.
This was reported by Reuters.
Avril Haines outlined the current assessment of the war in Ukraine and said that US intelligence had agreed that it would continue "for a long time." Gaines said Putin still intends to seize most of Ukraine, even though Ukrainian forces have repulsed Russiaʼs attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv.
"We think he has effectively the same political goals that we had previously, which is to say that he wants to take most of Ukraine," said the director of national intelligence. However, she said Russian forces had degraded so much in more than four months of fighting that it was unlikely they would be able to achieve Putinʼs goal any time soon.
"We perceive a disconnect between Putinʼs near-term military objectives in this area and his militaryʼs capacity, a kind of mismatch between his ambitions and what the military is able to accomplish," she said, overcoming that it would take Russia years to rebuild its forces.
"During this period, we anticipate that theyʼre going to be more reliant on assymetric tools that they have, such as cyber attacks, efforts to control energy, even nuclear weapons in order to try to manage and project power and influence globally," Haines said.
Haines said US intelligence sees three possible scenarios, the most likely of which is a "severe conflict" in which Russian forces "achieve gradual success without a break." Other scenarios include a major Russian breakthrough or Ukraineʼs success in stabilizing the front line, and small successes near Kherson and other areas in the south.
According to her, Putinʼs priority now is to achieve success in the Donbas region and defeat Ukrainian forces, which, according to Russia, "will lead to a weakening of internal resistance."