As the war in Ukraine enters its 2nd year, CIA Director William Burns stated Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being “too confident” in his armed force’s capability to grind Ukraine into submission.
Burns, in a tv interview, stated the head of Russia’s intelligence services had actually shown in their November conference “a sense of cockiness and hubris” that showed Putin’s own beliefs “that he can make time work for him, that he believes he can grind down the Ukrainians that he can wear down our European allies, that political fatigue will eventually set in.”
That discussion, in which Burns cautioned of the repercussions if Russia were to release a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, was “pretty dispiriting,” Burns stated.
Burns stated he evaluated Putin as “quite determined” to continue prosecuting the war, regardless of the casualties, tactical drawbacks and financial and reputational damage to Russia.
“I think Putin is, right now, entirely too confident of his ability … to wear down Ukraine,” Burns informed CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview that airedSunday Burns stated that “at some point, he’s going to have to face up to increasing costs as well, in coffins coming home to some of the poorest parts of Russia,” where he stated much of the conscripts “being thrown as cannon fodder” are from.
Burns likewise stated Putin was undervaluing U.S. deal with to assistance Ukraine, stating that it has actually been his experience that the Russian leader’s view is that Americans have “attention deficit disorder and we’ll move on to some other issue eventually.”
The remarks came at a vital point for the war as the Biden administration is “confident that the Chinese leadership is considering” whether to offer “lethal” military devices to Russia.
“It would be a very risky and unwise bet,” Burns stated, including that such a relocation might just even more strain relations in between the world’s 2 biggest economics. “That’s why I hope very much that they don’t.”
Burns stated China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has actually carefully seen how the war has actually progressed, and “I think, in many ways, he’s been unsettled and sobered by what he’s seen.” The CIA director mentioned “where Putin’s hubris has now gotten Russia,” and stated that in authoritarian systems, when “nobody challenges” a leader, “you can make some huge blunders.”
Meanwhile, the concern of military help and the rate of the war is likewise a source of unpredictability in the U.S. as Republican legislators slammed the administration for not sending out F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
White House nationwide security advisor Jake Sullivan stated the U.S. was offering Ukraine with the military help required to retake area taken byRussia The domestic politics of assistance for Ukraine are likewise made complex by some GOP members of Congress who state the administration ought to draw back and focus more on the requirements in your home.
Rep Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, stated aircrafts and long-range weapons might assist end the war on a faster timeline. “This whole thing is taking too long,” McCaul stated. “And it really didn’t have to happen this way,” stated McCaul, R-Texas
Ukraine won assistance last month from Baltic countries and Poland in its mission to get Western fighter jets, however there have actually been no indications that countries such as the U.S. and Britain will alter their position of declining to offer warplanes to Kyiv.
Biden stated in an ABC News interview on Friday that he’s “ruling it out for now,” stating that they are not the weapons that Ukrainians require in the near term.
ButSen Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, stated the White House has actually been sluggish in offering what Ukraine looks for, consisting of jets. “That has been a pattern with this administration from the beginning, where they have slow-rolled critical military weapons systems,” he stated.
Jake Sullivan stated the U.S. is currently offering parts to keep Ukraine’s fleet of Soviet- period jets flying, however providing F-16 s “is really a question for another day, for another phase” of the war.
Jake Sullivan appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week.” McCaul was on ABC and Dan Sullivan was on NBC.
