Western intelligence agencies are alarmed by US presidential election. Putin will try to drag out war until then. This is his plan - CNN
Russian President Vladimir Putin will seek to continue a full-scale war against Ukraine until the end of 2024, hoping that the possible election of Donald Trump as US president will lead to a halt in US aid to Ukraine.
This is the opinion of high-ranking officials of the USA and Europe interviewed by the CNN channel, Censor.NET reports with reference to LigaBusinessInform.
Next year's US presidential election remains a key factor that top officials in Western national security, intelligence, and diplomatic services say will influence Putin's decision on Ukraine.
One US official said they had "no doubt" that Putin was "trying to hang on" until the 2024 US election.
Another intelligence source said that "this is kind of the elephant in the room" for Ukraine, the US, and Europe.
"Putin knows that Trump will help him. As [know] both the Ukrainians and our European partners. Therefore, although we have not seen anything very clear about this, I believe that everyone thinks so," he noted.
A third CNN interviewee, a European diplomat, said that, in their opinion, trying to drag out the war before the US election "is exactly Putin's plan."
Interlocutors believe that Putin may see the victory of Trump or another candidate from the Republican Party as a chance that the United States will withdraw or reduce its support for Ukraine.
According to them, the Kremlin's attention to the American elections makes it even more important for Washington to maintain long-term support for Ukraine - a commitment that the administration of US President Joe Biden continues to repeat.
In August 2023, that is, 15 months before the election, Trump is the absolute favorite for the Republican nomination. He claims that he can "end the war in 24 hours", and his far-right MAGA party wing is categorically against continuing to support official Kyiv.
The former US ambassador to Poland, Daniel Fried, believes that the 2024 elections "complicate everything" because the Russians "think they have a light at the end of the tunnel."
"This prompts Putin to think that they can 'wait out' the Americans, because Ukraine's political support will be undermined if Trump wins," he said.
William Taylor, the US ambassador to Kyiv, believes that the Ukrainians "want to win or do something that will change the dynamics [on the battlefield] by the end of this year," and clarifies: "There are many reasons for this rush; for example, the fact that they are dying every day, but the US presidential election is one of them."
