US spy officials say Putin may escalate despite failures in Ukraine

US intelligence officials said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was unlikely to be prevented and could escalate the attack on Ukraine despite military failures and financial difficulties stemming from international sanctions.

“Our analysts believe that Putin is unlikely to be prevented from doing so and that it could escalate,” said Avril Hines, director of the National Intelligence Service. with other intelligence leaders.

With tensions so high, there is always the possibility of “unintentional escalation,” Hines said. He added that intelligence analysts had not seen any change in Russia’s attitude towards nuclear weapons other than those identified during previous international crises.

“I think Putin is angry and frustrated at the moment. It is possible that he will step up and try to overthrow the Ukrainian army without taking into account civilian casualties, “said Burns.

The United States has been “intensively exchanging information” with Ukraine, Burns said.

Burns said he and CIA analysts did not see how Putin could achieve his goal of taking Kyiv and replacing the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky with a pro-Moscow leadership or puppet. “I can not understand how,” he said. “It can create such an end, and where this will lead, I think, is in the bad weeks to come, when it will intensify its offensive with limited respect for civilian casualties,” Burns told the committee.

Source: Capital

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