WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) – Russia’s war in Ukraine is “a bit hopeless” and Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be preparing for a long conflict, senior US intelligence officials said Tuesday.
Russia, which calls the invasion a “special military operation”, sent more troops to Ukraine for a huge offensive last month in the east, but its progress has been slow.
Russia’s attack on Kyiv was repulsed in March by Ukrainian resistance.
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“The Russians are not winning and the Ukrainians are not winning, and we are at a dead end here,” Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He added that between eight and 10 Russian generals have been killed so far.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that while Russia had not made much progress in the Donbass, its troops were advancing gradually.
The war claimed the lives of thousands of civilians, sent millions of Ukrainians to flee and turned cities into ruins. Moscow has nothing to show for it outside the strip of territory to the south and insignificant profits to the east.
Putin called on the Russians to fight in a provocative speech on Monday’s Victory Day, but remained silent about plans for any escalation in Ukraine, despite warnings from the West that he could use his address in Red Square to order mobilization.
During the same hearing, National Intelligence Director Avril Haynes said Russia’s victory in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine could not end the war.
The location of a shopping center destroyed by shelling is pictured during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Odessa, Ukraine, May 10, 2022. REUTERS / Igor Tkachenko
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“We estimate that President Putin is preparing for a protracted conflict in Ukraine, during which he still intends to achieve goals outside Donbass,” Haynes told lawmakers.
She said the United States has indications that Russia wants to extend a land bridge to Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.
“Combined with the reality that Putin is facing a mismatch between his ambitions and Russia’s current conventional military capabilities … the next few months may see us on a more unpredictable and potentially escalating trajectory,” Haynes said.
TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Western concerns over the risk of nuclear war have risen since Putin launched the invasion on February 24 with a speech to Moscow’s nuclear forces and a warning that any attempt to thwart Russia “will lead to consequences you never had.” encountered in your story. “
Russia said last month it plans to deploy its newly tested Sarmatian intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of launching nuclear strikes against the United States by the fall.
Asked about Putin’s prospect of using tactical nuclear weapons, Berie said: “We don’t see that at the moment.”
Haynes said earlier that the intelligence community believed that Putin would allow the use of nuclear weapons only if he perceived an existential threat to the Russian state.
US President Joe Biden said on Monday that he was worried that Putin had no way out of the war in Ukraine. Biden said he was trying to figure out what to do with it.
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Report by Patricia Zengerle, Idrees Ali and Doina Chiaku; Edited by Mark Porter and Howard Goller
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