Vladimir Putin is expected to “become even more reliant” on nuclear weapons as his forces continue to be “crushed” in Ukraine, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a startling development to come as the 70-year-old Russian leader still struggles to take Ukraine despite invading the nation more than one year ago, United States Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines recently predicted Putin will soon start using nukes in the ongoing conflict.
According to Haines, Russia has already “suffered losses that will require years of rebuilding and leave it less capable of posing a conventional military threat.”
She also revealed Putin’s efforts to win the ongoing conflict using conventional warfare has proved fruitless, and so the Russian leader “will become even more reliant on asymmetric options such as nuclear, cyber, space capabilities, and on China”.
“We do think that could be the case in the event that he perceives that he is losing the war in Ukraine,” Haines explained during a recent Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, according to the Sun.
“And that NATO in effect is either intervening or about to intervene in that context,” she continued, “which would obviously contribute to a perception that he is about to lose the war in Ukraine.”
“One of the reservists described being ‘neither physically nor psychologically’ prepared for the action,” the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense recently reported regarding the mental state of Putin’s soldiers. “Recent evidence suggests an increase in close combat in Ukraine.”
“This is probably a result of the Russian command continuing to insist on offensive action largely consisting of dismounted infantry,” the report continued, “with less support from artillery fire because Russia is short of munitions.”