Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a “sentimentalist” when it comes to the massive loss of life his troops are facing in Ukraine and believes he can exhaust Ukraine and the West and ultimately win the war, CIA Director Bill Burns said Sunday.
Burns, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said the United States must provide full material and intelligence support in coming months to “puncture that hubris on Putin’s part” and regain momentum on the battlefield. He said Putin is convinced he “can’t afford to lose” so he will attempt to drag out the war.
“Putin’s view of Americans, of us, has been that we have attention deficit disorder, and we’ll move on to some other issue eventually,” Burns said. “So instead of looking for ways to either back down or find a famous off ramp, you know, what Putin has done is double down.”
Friday marked a grim milestone: one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. During this time, the U.S. pledged about $113 billion in assistance to Kyiv, more than half in the form of military aid, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Amid domestic struggles ranging from spiraling living costs to rising refugee arrivals, polls show Americans are growing less enamored with providing arms to Ukraine.
Latest developments:
►Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the anniversary of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea, tweeting: “9 years ago, Russian aggression began in Crimea. By returning Crimea, we will restore peace. This is our land. Our people. Our history. We will return the Ukrainian flag to every corner of Ukraine.”
►National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and other Sunday news shows, said the United States is providing parts for Ukraine’s fleet of Soviet-era jets, but that supplying F-16s “is really a question for another day, for another phase” of the war.
►GOP Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wants Sullivan and the Biden administration to answer the question now and provide Ukraine longer-range missiles. “When we give them what they can really use and ask for, they win,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”
►NATO can provide Ukraine with 62 of the German-made Leopard 2 tanks and “then we will see how the course of the war changes after that,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the Deutschlandfunk radio network Sunday. Ukraine has requested 300 tanks.
Putin accuses West of trying to destroy Russia
The West wants to eliminate Russia, and ethnic Russians may not survive as a distinct people if the West succeeds, Putin said in an interview Sunday on state-owned TV. Putin accused the United States and its allies of having “one goal: to disband the former Soviet Union and its fundamental part — the Russian Federation.”
His pitch that the West is conspiring against Russia has been a recurring theme in Putin’s effort to tamp down anti-war dissent.
“There will be Muscovites, Uralians and others,” he said of Russia’s possible fragmentation into regional groupings. The West could only partly accept Russia into the so-called “family of civilized peoples,” breaking the country into separate pieces, he theorized.
Putin also said Russia suspended participation last week in the New START nuclear treaty not only because of U.S. nuclear capabilities but those of other NATO countries. He said Russia can’t accept U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites while Washington and NATO allies seek Russia’s defeat in Ukraine. But he reiterated that Moscow was not withdrawing from the pact, and his Foreign Ministry said Moscow would respect the treaty caps on nuclear weapons and continue notifying the United States about test launches of ballistic missiles.
Russia’s drones lose effectiveness but still useful as decoys
The lack of reports about drones launching attacks in Ukraine since mid-February probably indicates the Russians have run out of the Iranian-made weapons, though they’ll likely order more, the British Defense Ministry said in an update.
The drones were initially effective at damaging civilian infrastructure, but the Ukrainians became more adept at shooting them down, including at least 24 between late January and early February, the ministry said.
“Although the weapons do not have a good record in destroying their intended targets,” the ministry said, “Russia likely sees them as useful decoys which can divert Ukrainian air defenses from more effective Russian cruise missiles.”
The Saudi ministry said representatives of the two nations discussed “opportunities to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two friendly countries” and ways to support each other in various fields.
“Grateful to Prince @FaisalbinFarhan for constructive dialogue and mutual understanding,” Yermak said in tweets that included photos of Yermak and the prince.
Ukraine says it repelled latest Russian push near hotly contested Bakhmut
Russian forces have attacked almost two dozen communities near Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk province and the focus of much of the fighting in recent weeks, the Ukraine military said Sunday.
The region remains divided between Ukrainian and Russian control, while Russia has seized most of the Luhansk province. Together they form the eastern Donbas region that has been the focus of Putin’s war.
Weeks of intense fighting with heavy casualties have barely moved the frontlines. The owner of the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his fighters had advanced into a settlement on Bakhmut’s northern edge, but the Ukrainian military disputed that claim, saying Russian forces were repelled.
“The adversary keeps attacking the positions of Ukrainian troops,” the Ukraine military said on Facebook. “Enemy offensives were unsuccessful.”
Saudi Arabia to provide Ukraine with $400M in humanitarian aid
Saudi Arabia agreed to provide Ukraine with $400 million in humanitarian aid, Ukraine and Saudi officials said Sunday.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan led the kingdom’s delegation to Kyiv, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the presidential residence. The prince also met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff.
Russia claims to have destroyed thousands of Ukrainian tanks
The Russia Ministry of Defense claimed Sunday to have destroyed 390 Ukrainian airplanes, 211 helicopters, 3,243 drones, 405 air missile systems, 8,042 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles and 1,045 fighting vehicles equipped with multiple launch rocket systems since the war began a year ago. The ministry also claimed 4,222 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 8,556 units of special military vehicles, have been destroyed since the invasion began.
The ministry did not estimate the number of Ukrainian soldiers or civilians it had killed, nor did it announce its own losses.
Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY; The Associated Press