Putin is ‘too confident’ he can grind Ukraine into submission: CIA director – National | 24CA News

As the struggle in Ukraine enters its second yr, CIA Director William Burns stated Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being “too confident” in his army’s means to grind Ukraine into submission.

Burns, in a tv interview, stated the top of Russia’s intelligence companies had displayed of their November assembly “a sense of cockiness and hubris” that mirrored Putin’s personal beliefs “that he can make time work for him, that he believes he can grind down the Ukrainians that he can wear down our European allies, that political fatigue will eventually set in.”

That dialog, by which Burns warned of the implications if Russia had been to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, was “pretty dispiriting,” Burns stated.

Burns stated he judged Putin as “quite determined” to proceed prosecuting the struggle, regardless of the casualties, tactical shortcomings and financial and reputational harm to Russia.

“I think Putin is, right now, entirely too confident of his ability … to wear down Ukraine,” Burns instructed CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview that aired Sunday. Burns stated that “at some point, he’s going to have to face up to increasing costs as well, in coffins coming home to some of the poorest parts of Russia,” the place he stated lots of the conscripts “being thrown as cannon fodder” are from.

Burns additionally stated Putin was underestimating U.S. resolve to assist Ukraine, saying that it has been his expertise that the Russian chief’s view is that Americans have “attention deficit disorder and we’ll move on to some other issue eventually.”

The feedback got here at a crucial juncture for the struggle because the Biden administration is “confident that the Chinese leadership is considering” whether or not to supply “lethal” army tools to Russia.

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“It would be a very risky and unwise bet,” Burns stated, including that such a transfer might solely additional pressure relations between the world’s two largest economics. “That’s why I hope very much that they don’t.”

Burns stated China’s chief, Xi Jinping, has carefully watched how the struggle has advanced, and “I think, in many ways, he’s been unsettled and sobered by what he’s seen.” The CIA director spoke of “where Putin’s hubris has now gotten Russia,” and stated that in authoritarian methods, when “nobody challenges” a pacesetter, “you can make some huge blunders.”

Meanwhile, the query of army support and the tempo of the struggle can be a supply of uncertainty within the U.S. as Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for not sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

White House nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan stated the U.S. was offering Ukraine with the army support wanted to retake territory seized by Russia. The home politics of assist for Ukraine are additionally difficult by some GOP members of Congress who say the administration ought to pull again and focus extra on the wants at house.

READ MORE: China requires Russia Ukraine stop fireplace, peace talks amid anniversary of struggle

Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, stated planes and long-range artillery might assist finish the struggle on a quicker timeline. “This whole thing is taking too long,” McCaul stated. “And it really didn’t have to happen this way,” stated McCaul, R-Texas.

Ukraine gained assist final month from Baltic nations and Poland in its quest to acquire Western fighter jets, however there have been no indicators that nations such because the U.S. and Britain will change their stance of refusing to supply warplanes to Kyiv.

Biden stated in an ABC News interview on Friday that he’s “ruling it out for now,” saying that they aren’t the weaponry that Ukrainians want within the close to time period.

But Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, stated the White House has been sluggish in offering what Ukraine seeks, together with jets. “That has been a pattern with this administration from the beginning, where they have slow-rolled critical military weapons systems,” he stated.

Jake Sullivan stated the U.S. is already offering elements to maintain Ukraine’s fleet of Soviet-era jets flying, however supplying F-16s “is really a question for another day, for another phase” of the struggle.

Jake Sullivan appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week.” McCaul was on ABC and Dan Sullivan was on NBC.

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