President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia still aims to take most of Ukraine, but a breakthrough in the country’s east to other major cities beyond the Donbas remains unlikely in the short term even as Moscow’s forces consolidate their gains, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.
The consensus in U.S. intelligence agencies is that the war in Ukraine is likely to go on for an extended period of time, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, said in her first public update on intelligence assessments of the war in more than a month.
Russia, she said, controls about 20 percent of Ukraine, with a conflict line that stretches for about 680 miles. Insurgent resistance by Ukrainians in Russian-occupied parts of the country is increasing, Ms. Haines said, making it less likely that Russia will make rapid gains or that a peaceful resolution can be reached.
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