American Intelligence Shows Putin's Goal in Ukraine

Moscow troops have been so weakened by fighting, however, that American officials estimate they are able to make only slow territorial profits.

That means the war could last a long time, says National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, the BBC reports.

In March, Moscow resumed its efforts to invade the Ukraine area of Donbas after failing to invade Kiev and other cities.

Putin still has the same goals as he had at the beginning of the conflict, said senior American intelligence official Haines.

But she says Russia is unlikely to achieve that goal soon.

“We perceive a split between Putin's short-term military targets in this area and his army's capacity, a kind of contradiction between his ambitions and what the military is able to achieve,” she said at a US Trade Department conference.

Since failure to achieve its original goal of conquering Kiev, Russia has focused on taking over territory in the eastern region of Donbas a large industrial area where Putin claims Ukraine has committed a genocide against Russian-speaking people.