{"id":73926,"date":"2022-09-18T14:23:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T14:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/18\/putin-cant-achieve-ukraine-goal-us-military-intel-chief-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:21:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:21:56","slug":"putin-cant-achieve-ukraine-goal-us-military-intel-chief-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/09\/18\/putin-cant-achieve-ukraine-goal-us-military-intel-chief-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin can\u2019t achieve Ukraine goal, US military intel chief says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russia\u2019s setbacks and stretched resources in Ukraine show its forces are incapable of achieving President Vladimir Putin\u2019s initial aims in invading the country<\/a> as things stand now, the Pentagon\u2019s intelligence chief said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re coming to a point right now where I think Putin is going to have to revise what his objectives<\/a> are for this operation,\u201d Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told an intelligence and national security conference outside Washington. \u201cBecause \u201cit\u2019s pretty clear right now that he\u2019s … not going to be able to do what he initially intended to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin sent troops into neighboring Ukraine in February with what U.S. officials say was the objective of unseating Ukraine\u2019s Western-friendly government. Ukrainian forces drove Russian fighters from their positions around Ukraine\u2019s capital earlier in the war. And Russia suffered another major setback last week, when a Ukrainian counteroffensive forced its troops back<\/a> from large swaths of Ukraine\u2019s northeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ukrainian
Ukrainian servicemen rest at a former Russian position in the recently retaken area of Izium, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. (Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Russians planned for an occupation, not necessarily an invasion, and that has set them back,\u201d Berrier said, citing Putin\u2019s reluctance so far to fully mobilize Russian forces to get more manpower into the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden and other administration officials have taken care not to call Russia\u2019s latest retreat a Ukrainian victory or turning point in the war, and analysts caution it\u2019s impossible to assess what may lie ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coming to a decision\u201d point,\u201d Berrier said of Putin. \u201cWhat that decision will be we don\u2019t know. But that will largely drive how long this conflict lasts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berrier spoke at a panel with other senior officials at the intelligence community\u2019s Intelligence and National Security Summit at National Harbor in Maryland just outside Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\t