Russian President Vladimir Putin preparing for a protracted conflict according to the United States national intelligence. Putin’s war in Ukraine is likely to become “more unpredictable and escalatory” in the coming months.
On Tuesday, Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the next phase of Putin’s months-long invasion is bleak and unpredictable. “Putin faces a mismatch between his objectives and Russia’s current conventional military capabilities,” she said, adding that his next move will be difficult to foresee.
The circumstances on the ground, according to Haines, could “raise the chance that President Putin will resort to more harsh measures.” “Including establishing martial law, reorienting industrial production, or even escalatory military activities,” according to the report.
She told legislators that the intelligence community does not believe Putin would resort to nuclear weapons unless he believes his country is facing an existential threat. The chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, also stated that the US does not expect Russia to use a tactical or battlefield nuclear bomb anytime soon.
Haines’ remarks come as heavy battle rages in Ukraine’s east, where Russia is attempting to seize territory. Putin’s ambitions, according to the intelligence community, go far beyond the eastern Donbas region. “We are not sure that the struggle in Donbas will successfully end the war,” Haines added, even if they are victorious.
Putin, she claims, intends to take control of the two eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as control the city of Kherson and maybe build a land bridge across Ukraine to Transnistria, a Russian-backed entity in Moldova. However, the intelligence community believes that in order to reach Transnistria, Putin would have to start a full-scale mobilization within Russia, which he has yet to do.