Putin is convinced he will win a war of attrition

Facing his military difficulties in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin knows he cannot win the war for now, but he is convinced he will win the final victory with a war of attrition, refusing to consider any other option, CIA Director William Burns says.

“Putin, in my opinion, believes today that he cannot win right away, but he cannot lose,” the CIA director said in an interview with CBS News.

“Right now, I think Putin is quite determined,” says Burns, but “is overconfident that he can tire Ukraine.”

Instead of thinking of a way out, the Russian president is “insisting and signing off” on his war, according to Burns, the former US ambassador to Moscow.

He stressed that his meeting in November in Turkey with his Russian counterpart Sergei Nareskin was “disheartening”.

The CIA director also said he saw “a form of recklessness and excessive pride” in the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), whom he met to warn him against any resort to nuclear weapons and not to negotiations, the point being “the Ukrainians will decide”.