The head of the CIA has said
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine can already be judged as a failure, as
Ukrainian troops continue a counteroffensive against Russian
occupying forces in the north-east of the country.
William Burns said Putin had
underestimated Ukrainian resolve when he decided to invade in February and was
now making the same mistake when it came to international support for Kyiv.
“Putin’s bet right now is that
he is going to be tougher than the Ukrainians, the Europeans, the Americans … I
believe, and my colleagues at CIA believe, that Putin is as wrong about that
bet as he was profoundly wrong in his assumptions going back to last February
about Ukrainian will to resist,” Burns said at a conference in Washington, in
comments reported by the New York Times.
“Not only has the weakness of
the Russian military been exposed … but there is going to be long-term damage
done to the Russian economy and to generations of Russians,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have made
significant progress in their first major counterattack since the spring,
pushing back Russian forces from a number of settlements in the Kharkiv region.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in
his nightly video address on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had recaptured more
than 1,000 sq km of territory from the Russians since the beginning of
September.
“Our heroes have already
liberated dozens of settlements. And today this movement continued, there are
new results,” the president said.
