To wear. This is how Vladimir Putin would plan to win the war in Ukraine, according to an analysis by CIA boss William Burns. In an interview, he said that the Russian leader knows that he cannot win the war for the moment but is convinced that he will win an eventual victory. "Putin, in my opinion, now thinks he can't win right away, but he can't afford to lose," the director of the US intelligence agency told CBS.
"Right now, according to William Burns, I think Putin is downright determined" but "overconfident in his ability to wear down Ukraine." And instead of considering a way out, the Russian president is "persisting and signing" his war, according to William Burns, former US ambassador to Moscow.
His November meeting in Turkey with his Russian counterpart Sergei Naryshkin was "demoralizing", he also said. He says he saw "a form of imprudence, of excessive pride" in the boss of the SVR (external intelligence), met to warn him of any recourse to nuclear weapons, and not for negotiations, whose point starting point "will be decided by the Ukrainians".
In addition, the CIA boss is worried about the increasingly close ties between Tehran and Moscow. Russia would consider helping Iran with its missile program and supplying it with fighter jets, William Burns said on Sunday, fearing a "dangerous" escalation in military cooperation between Iran and Russia.
"What we're also seeing are signs that Russia is offering to help the Iranians with [its] missile program and also looking at the possibility of getting Iran fighter jets," Bill Burns said. This military cooperation is accelerating "in a direction which is very dangerous since it is known that the Iranians have already supplied hundreds of armed drones to the Russians, which they use to make Ukrainian civilians suffer" and to affect the infrastructure, he said.
"We also know that [the Iranians] provided ammunition for artillery and tanks," added the US intelligence chief. "This entails obvious risks not only for the people of Ukraine […] but also for our friends and partners across the Middle East," he said, speaking of the military cooperation that is strengthening in " an alarming pace".
