Putin Will Escalate War. U.S. Intelligence Told About New Stage Of Hostilities

The U.S. intelligence community believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is likely to become "more unpredictable and escalatory" in the coming months.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told Congress about this, European Pravda writes with reference to CNN.

Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Haines painted a grim and uncertain picture of the next phase of Putin's invasion.

She said his next move would be difficult to predict in part because "Putin is facing a mismatch between his ambitions and Russia's current conventional weapons capability."

Haines said the situation on the ground could "increase the likelihood that President Putin will take stronger action." "Including the imposition of martial law, the reorientation of industrial production or the potential escalation of hostilities," she said.

The intelligence community does not believe that Putin would use nuclear weapons unless he feels there is an existential threat to Russia, she said.

Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, also said separately that the U.S. does not expect Russia to use tactical or combat nuclear weapons anytime soon.

Haines also said that Putin's goals extend far beyond Donbas. “Even if they succeed, we are not sure that the fighting in Donbas will actually end the war,” she said.

In the short term, Putin, she said, wants to capture Donetsk and Luhansk regions, take control of the city of Kherson, and potentially expand the land route to unrecognized Transnistria. But the intelligence community believes that to reach Transnistria, Putin will need to conduct a full mobilization inside Russia, which he has not done so far.

"Because both Russia and Ukraine believe they can continue to make progress militarily, we don't see a viable negotiating path, at least in the short term," Haines said.

As Ukrainian News Agency reported, in his speech on Red Square, Putin said that NATO and Ukraine were preparing for "a punitive operation in Donbas, an invasion of Russian historical lands, including Crimea."

At the same time, the parade was held without aviation, although earlier they wanted to show the “doomsday” plane, on which the Russian government would be evacuated in the event of a nuclear strike.

Meanwhile, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Russian President Vladimir Putin showed "a slight hint of desperation" in his Victory Day speech.