The United States’ National Intelligence Director Avril Haines said on Saturday (December 3) that the Russian forces in Ukraine are using up ammunition “quite quickly”. Despite the recent attacks on missile infrastructure, US intelligence believes that fighting in parts of Ukraine has been slowing down, which apparently will continue in the coming months.
Haines told the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California, “We are seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict … and we expect that’s likely to be what we see in the coming months.”
According to Haines, both the Ukrainian and Russian troops will prepare for a counter-offensive after the winter. But before that, they might try to refit and resupply.
She said, “We actually have a fair amount of scepticism as to whether or not the Russians will be in fact prepared to do that. I think more optimistically for the Ukrainians in that timeframe.”
At the defence forum, Haines also noted said she thought Russian President Vladimir Putin had been taken aback by his military’s lack of greater success.
She said: “I do think 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 at this stage of just how challenged they are … we see shortages of ammunition, for morale, supply issues, logistics, a whole series of concerns that they’re facing.”
Haines also claimed that Putin might think to scale back his military objectives “on a temporary basis with the idea that he might then come back at this issue at a later time”.
Russia appeared to be using up its military stockpiles “quite quickly”, Haines said, further adding that “it is pretty extraordinary, and our own sense is that they are not capable of indigenously producing what they are expending at this stage.”
“That’s why you see them going to other countries effectively to try to get ammunition … and we’ve indicated that their precision munitions are running out much faster in many respects,” she added.
UK warns Putin could use ‘peace talks’ to restock his army
In an interview with The Telegraph, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that Putin could use peace talks to restock his army in Ukraine before launching another attack.
Cleverly alleged that Putin could pretend to engage in negotiations while training more troops and sending more ammunition, the newspaper said on December 2.
The paper quoted Cleverly as saying that there is a risk that a cease-fire would be used by Putin to “refit his damaged armed forces and to rearm his armed forces”.
(With inputs from agencies)
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