Ukraine war latest: War will be ‘at reduced tempo for months,’ says US intel; Claims Russia and Belarus ‘prepared for peace’ – but Ukraine ‘unwilling’ | World News

US intelligence experts say there will be a reduced tempo in fighting in Ukraine over the next few months.

Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence, said both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries would be looking to try to refit and resupply to prepare for a counter-offensive after the winter, so day-to-day fighting would slow.

She said, however, there was no evidence of a reduced Ukrainian will to resist, despite attacks on its power grid and other critical winter infrastructure.

She told the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California: “We’re seeing a kind of reduced tempo already of the conflict … and we expect that’s likely to be what we see in the coming months.” 

She said there was a question, though, over what a new post-winter counter-offensive would look like for the Russians.

“We actually have a fair amount of scepticism as to whether or not the Russians will be in fact prepared to do that.

“I think more optimistically for the Ukrainians in that timeframe.”

She said Kyiv’s economy had been suffering very badly, describing it as “devastating” but she added she thought Russian President Vladimir Putin had been surprised his forces had not accomplished more militarily.

“I do think he is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia. But it’s still not clear to us that he has a full picture at this stage of just how challenged they are … we see shortages of ammunition, for morale, supply issues, logistics, a whole series of concerns that they’re facing.”

And she said Russia appeared to be using up its military stockpiles “quite quickly.”