The US intelligence chief has said Vladimir Putin has become “better informed” about the difficulties facing his invading forces in Ukraine, as the Kremlin suggested the Russian president could visit the occupied Donbas region at an unspecified future date.
Speaking at a defense forum on Saturday afternoon, Avril Haines, the US director of national intelligence, indicated that Putin was no longer so insulated from bad news about the conditions facing his invasion of Ukraine as it was at the beginning of the campaign.
Alluding to earlier assessments that Putin’s advisers might be shielded from bad news, Haines said he is “increasingly aware of the challenges facing the military in Russia.”
“But it’s still not clear to us that he has a complete picture of the challenge they have at this stage,” he said, addressing an audience at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
Haines’ comments reflect a broader internalization of Russian military failures in Ukraine that has been increasingly reflected in comments made by key regime propagandists, public opinion polls and analysis by the blogging community Russian military
The scale of the challenges facing the Russian president has also been underscored by a series of battlefield setbacks in recent months that have seen the Russians withdraw from the Kharkiv region of the Oblast of Kherson – including the key city of the same name – and parts. of the Donbas region occupied by the Russians.
While Moscow has responded by attacking Ukraine’s main civilian energy infrastructure in an attempt to freeze Kyiv into concessions, this campaign has also had only a partial impact as Ukrainian engineers have moved quickly to repair damaged power plants and Western allies have sent emergency generating plants. to help disperse Ukraine’s energy grid.
The Kremlin’s vague comments on a possible visit by Putin, made on Saturday, appeared designed more for public consumption in Russia than to indicate that any visit was imminent.
Speaking to Russian news agencies, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said of any Putin visit: “In due course, this will happen, of course. This is a region of the Russian Federation.” .
However, with heavy fighting continuing around the key Donbas city of Bakhmut, where Russian forces have been fighting for six months to make minimal progress, and a reported attempted Ukrainian offensive around Kreminna in In recent days, the political and security conditions for a visit by Putin appear. unfavorable
Reports on social media also suggested that Ukrainian forces were making progress in operations on the east bank of the Dnipro River, opposite the recently liberated city of Kherson, following an amphibious landing in Kinburn last month.
Video and still images posted on Telegram and Twitter show a Ukrainian flag tied to a crane near the shore in a port area on the east side of the river by a special forces unit, which described the area as “a springboard for to the unemployment of the left [east] bank of the Kherson region”.
Footage of the probe/psyche-out operation raising a flag on the left bank of the Dnipro in front of Kherson. The Russians left the area deserted. https://t.co/Ouvqt8PTkd
— Tom Warner (@warnerta) December 3, 2022
Ukrainian forces reached the east (left) bank of the Dnipro River in front of the city of Kherson. If confirmed, this limited Ukrainian incursion into the east bank could pave the way for Ukrainian forces to begin operating in the east bank. pic.twitter.com/3uahyVhpjb
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) December 4, 2022
While Ukrainian operations east of the river have been under a news blackout, Vitaly Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, has previously confirmed the presence of Ukrainian forces in the area.
Facing a second winter of fighting in Ukraine, Haines suggested fighting was continuing at a “reduced pace” for now, adding that there could be brighter prospects for Ukrainian forces in the coming months.
“Honestly, we’re seeing kind of a slowing down of the conflict,” he said, adding that his team expected both sides to look to equip, supply and reconstitute for a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive in the spring.
“Most of the fighting at the moment is around Bakhmut and the Donetsk area,” he said. “But we actually have a fair amount of skepticism about whether or not the Russians will be ready to do that. And I think more optimistically for the Ukrainians in that time frame.”
In his late-night speech on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticized Western efforts to target the Russian oil industry, a key source of funds for Putin’s war machine, saying his limit of price of 60 dollars a barrel on Russian oil imports was insufficient.
“It is not a serious decision to set such a limit for Russian prices, which is quite comfortable for the budget of the terrorist state,” Zelenskiy said, referring to Russia. He said the level of $60 a barrel would still allow Russia to generate annual revenues of $100 billion.
“This money will be used not only for war and not only for additional sponsorship by Russia of other terrorist regimes and organizations. This money will be used for further destabilization of those countries that are now trying to avoid serious decisions.” Zelenskiy said.
Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the United States and the 27-nation European Union agreed on Friday to cap what they would pay for Russian oil at $60 a barrel. The limit will come into effect on Monday, along with the EU’s embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea.
Russian authorities have rejected the price cap and on Saturday threatened to stop supplying nations that have endorsed it.
Agencies contributed to this report