Putin surprised by failure in Ukraine and may change some short-term goals - US intelligence
Russian President Vladimir Putin was surprised by the failure of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and may reduce his goals in Ukraine for a while.
As Censor.NET reports with reference to Reuters, this was stated by the Director of National Intelligence of the USA, Avril Haynes, at the annual National Defense Forum in California.
At the same time, she noted that the head of the Kremlin has not changed his long-term plans for Ukraine.
"Putin may want to scale back his short-term military goals to return to his plans sometime later," Haynes said.
She said that Russia used up its military reserves "rather quickly".
"I really think he's becoming more aware of the challenges facing the military in Russia. But we're still not clear if he has the full picture at this stage. We're seeing shortages of ammunition, morale, supply issues, logistics ", Haynes said.
Asked about the fallout from Russia's attacks on Ukraine's power grid and other civilian infrastructure, Haynes said Moscow's goal was in part to undermine Ukrainians' will to resist.
"I think that we do not see any evidence that the will of Ukrainians has been undermined. At the same time, the economy of Ukraine is suffering a lot," she said.
Haynes added that the US does not consider regime change in Russia likely because of the war and the fall of power in Iran due to protests.
