Avril Haines alluded to previous allegations by some that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advisers might be shielding him from unhealthy news — for Russia — about battle developments, and mentioned he “is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia”.
“But it’s still not clear to us that he has a full picture of at this stage of just how challenged they are,” the US director of nationwide intelligence mentioned Saturday on the Reagan National Defence Forum in Simi Valley, California.
Looking forward, Haines mentioned, “honestly we’re seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict” and her workforce expects that either side will look to refit, resupply, and reconstitute for a doable Ukrainian counter-offensive within the northern hemisphere spring.
“But we actually have a fair amount of skepticism as to whether or not the Russians will be in fact prepared to do that,” she mentioned. “And I think more optimistically for the Ukrainians in that timeframe.”
On Sunday, the British Ministry of Defence, in its newest intelligence estimate, pointed to new indicators from an unbiased Russian media outlet that public help in Russia for the army marketing campaign was “falling significantly”.
Meduza mentioned it obtained a latest confidential opinion survey performed by the Federal Protection Service, which is in control of guarding the Kremlin and offering safety to high authorities officers.
The survey, commissioned by the Kremlin, discovered that 55 per cent of respondents backed peace talks with Ukraine whereas 25 per cent needed the battle to go on. The report did not point out the margin of error.
Levada Centre, Russia’s high unbiased pollster, present in the same ballot carried out in November ballot that 53 per cent of respondents supported peace talks, 41 per cent spoke in favour of continuous the struggle, and 6 per cent have been undecided. That ballot of 1600 individuals had a margin of error of not more than 3.4 per cent.
The British Defence Ministry famous that “despite the Russian authorities’ efforts to enforce pervasive control of the information environment, the conflict has become increasingly tangible for many Russians since the September 2022 ‘partial mobilisation’.”
“With Russia unlikely to achieve major battlefield successes in the next several months, maintaining even tacit approval of the war amongst the population is likely to be increasingly difficult for the Kremlin,” it mentioned.
In latest weeks, Russia’s army focus has been on putting Ukrainian infrastructure and urgent an offensive within the east, close to the city of Bakhmut, whereas shelling websites within the metropolis of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces liberated final month after an 8-month Russian occupation.
In his nightly tackle on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lashed out at Western efforts to crimp Russia’s essential oil trade, a key supply of funds for Putin’s battle machine, saying their $60-per-barrel value cap on imports of Russian oil was inadequate.
“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 mentioned, referring to Russia. He mentioned the $60-per-barrel degree would nonetheless permit Russia to herald $US100 billion ($147.14 billion) in revenues per yr.
“This money will go not only to the war and not only to further sponsorship by Russia of other terrorist regimes and organisations. This money will be used for further destabilisation of those countries that are now trying to avoid serious decisions,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the United States and the 27-nation European Union agreed Friday to cap what they might pay for Russian oil at $60 per barrel. The restrict is ready to take impact Monday, together with an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea.
Russian authorities have rejected the worth cap and threatened Saturday to cease supplying the nations that endorsed it.
In yet one more present of Western help for Ukraine’s efforts to battle again Russian forces and address fallout from the battle, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on Saturday visited the operations of a Ukrainian help group that gives help for internally displaced individuals in Ukraine, amongst her different visits with high Ukrainian officers.
Nuland assembled dolls out of yarn within the blue-and-yellow colors of Ukraine’s flag with children from areas together with northeastern Kharkiv, southern Kherson, and japanese Donetsk.
“This is psychological support for them at an absolutely crucial time,” Nuland mentioned.
“As President Putin knows best, this war could stop today, if he chose to stop it and withdrew his forces — and then negotiations can begin,” she added.
Russia constructing enormous military base in captured metropolis
