A house burns after a Russian attack in Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, December 3, 2022.
Evgeny Maloletka/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Evgeny Maloletka/AP
A house burns after a Russian attack in Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, December 3, 2022.
Evgeny Maloletka/AP
KYIV, Ukraine – The US intelligence chief said fighting in Russia’s war in Ukraine was taking place at a “reduced tempo” and suggested Ukrainian forces may have better prospects in the coming months.
Avril Haines alluded to past claims by some that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advisers could shield him from bad news – for Russia – about the course of the war, and said he was “becoming more and more informed about the challenges facing the military in Russia”.
“But it’s still not clear to us that he has the full picture at this point of their challenge,” the US director of national intelligence said Saturday night at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif.
Looking ahead, Haines said, “honestly, we’re already seeing some sort of slowdown in the conflict” and his team expects both sides to look to refit, restock and rebuild for a potential counterattack. -Ukrainian offensive in the spring.
“But we’re actually quite skeptical whether or not the Russians will be ready to do that,” she said. “And I think more optimistically for Ukrainians in this time frame.”
On Sunday, Britain’s Ministry of Defence, in its latest intelligence estimate, pointed to new signs from independent Russian media that public support in Russia for the military campaign was “falling significantly”.
Meduza said he obtained a recent confidential opinion survey conducted by the Federal Protective Service, which is tasked with guarding the Kremlin and providing security for senior government officials.
The survey, commissioned by the Kremlin, found that 55% of those polled supported peace talks with Ukraine while 25% wanted the war to continue. The report did not mention the margin of error.
Levada Center, Russia’s leading independent pollster, found in a similar poll in November that 53% of those polled supported the peace talks, 41% were in favor of continuing the fight and 6% were undecided. This poll of 1,600 people had a margin of error of no more than 3.4%.
The UK Ministry of Defense noted that “despite efforts by Russian authorities to impose pervasive control of the information environment, the conflict has become increasingly tangible to many Russians since the ‘partial mobilization’ of September 2022”.
“With Russia unlikely to achieve major battlefield successes in the coming months, maintaining even tacit approval of war among the population is likely to be increasingly difficult for the Kremlin,” he said. he declared.
In recent weeks, Russia has focused on Ukrainian infrastructure and launched an offensive to the east, near the town of Bakhmut, while bombarding sites in the city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces liberated last month. last after an 8-month Russian occupation.
In his Saturday night address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Western efforts to ensnare Russia’s crucial oil industry, a key source of funds for Putin’s war machine, saying their $60 price cap the 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,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russia. He said the $60 a barrel level would still allow Russia to generate $100 billion in revenue a year.
“This money will not only go to war and not only to Russia’s sponsorship of other terrorist regimes and organizations. This money will be used to further destabilize those countries that are now trying to avoid serious decisions,” Zelenskyy said.
Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the United States and the European Union of 27 agreed on Friday to cap what they would pay for Russian oil at $60 a barrel. The limit is expected to come into effect on Monday, along with an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea.
Russian authorities rejected the price cap and threatened on Saturday to stop supplying countries that had approved it.
In another show of Western support for Ukraine’s efforts to fight Russian forces and deal with the fallout from the war, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland visited the operations of a Ukrainian aid group that provides support to internally displaced people. in Ukraine, among his other visits with senior Ukrainian officials.
Nuland assembled woolen dolls in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag with young people from areas such as northeastern Kharkiv, southern Kherson and eastern Donetsk.
“This is psychological support for them at an absolutely crucial time,” Nuland said.
“As President Putin knows best, this war could end today, if he chose to stop it and withdraw his forces – and then negotiations could begin,” she added.
