CIA director William Burns believes that the next six months will be "critical" in the war in Ukraine and that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that the "political fatigue" that the conflict entails for the West could give his army a new chance to win on the battlefield.
"Putin, I think, is betting right now that he can make time work for him," Burns said in statements made at a Georgetown University event broadcast by the US network CBSNews. "The key is going to be on the battlefield in the next six months or so it seems to us," he says.
Burns speaks of "Putin's arrogance" and notes that "not only will he not be able to make any further progress in Ukraine, but as each month passes, he is at greater and greater risk of losing the territory he has so far illegally wrested from Ukraine".
For this reason, "I think that this next period will be absolutely crucial," he reiterates.
The former US ambassador to Russia has claimed that Western intelligence has shown that Moscow was not interested in peace talks, despite reports that have occasionally been made public that seemed to say otherwise.
"We do not consider that Putin takes the negotiations seriously," he says. Burns' comments come amid warnings by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky that Russia is preparing to launch a major offensive against the eastern part of the country, where missile attacks have already been reported. intensified this week.
This offensive, according to Ukrainian sources, could increase as the first anniversary of the start of this invasion that Moscow ordered on February 24 approaches.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
