The Russian army is unlikely to make any major territorial gains in Ukraine this year. Avril Haines, director of national intelligence in the US, said Wednesday at a hearing in the Senate in Washington.
Russia is dealing with “major losses” and Russian President Vladimir Putin “probably better understands the limits of what his military is capable of,” Haines said. According to her, the Russian president is therefore “focusing on more modest military objectives”.
“We don’t think the Russian army will recover enough this year to make major territorial gains, but Putin probably estimates that time is in his favor,” she added.
According to her, Putin thinks that prolonging the war is “the best option to protect Russia’s strategic interests in Ukraine, even if it takes years.”
In fact, according to the head of national intelligence, Russia will find it difficult to maintain the pace of the current attacks “if no mandatory mobilization is declared or large-scale third-party resupply comes.” Then it would not be impossible that Russia will focus solely on defending the areas it already controls.
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