Russian President Vladimir Putin likely views a long war in Ukraine as his best chance to achieve victory, said a top Biden administration spy chief on Wednesday.
More than a year after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that there is a “grinding attritional war in which neither side has a definitive military advantage” over the other.
“If Russia does not initiate a mandatory mobilization and identify substantial third-party ammunition supplies, it will be increasingly challenging for them to sustain even the current level of offensive operations in the coming months, and consequently they may fully shift to holding and defending the territories they now occupy,” Haines said.
“In short, we do not see the Russia military recovering enough this year to make major territorial gains,” Haines continued, speaking for the U.S. intelligence community. “But Putin most likely…
