Kiev, March 8, (dpa/GNA) – Even as the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary army claims his troops have made advances in bloody fighting in Bakhmut, a top US intelligences official warned on Wednesday that Russia, may be settling in for a prolonged war of attrition against Ukraine.
“We do not expect the Russian military to recover sufficiently this year to make major territorial gains,” US intelligence coordinator Avril Haines, said at a Senate hearing in Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, most likely believes that time is on his side, and prolonging the war might present his best chance of securing Russia’s strategic interests in Ukraine, even if it takes years, Haines said.
The US intelligence official said Putin now probably better understands the limits of Russian military capabilities, and seems to be concentrating on more modest goals for the time being.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, meanwhile, said his country is ready to hand over Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, pending a potential international coalition, but gave few details about what an agreement on the jets might look like.
Duda also suggested during a visit to Abu Dhabi in the Gulf, that in the future Ukrainian fighter pilots, should be trained on more advanced US-made F-16 fighter jets.
The comments from Haines and Duda came on the same day that close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary force, claimed that his soldiers have conquered the entire eastern part of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian defenders have been locked in a long and costly battle.
“Everything east of the Bakhmutka river is under complete control of the private security company Wagner,” Prigozhin said in an audio recording released by his press service on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian side has so far not confirmed that its forces have withdrawn from the area.
It was not possible to independently verify these claims from the war zone.
Fighters from the Wagner group have encircled the city from the east, north and south. However, Kiev still intends to defend Bakhmut, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stressed again during his daily video address on Tuesday evening.
If Bakhmut falls, the path to the major cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk opens wider for the Russian troops, bringing them closer to a complete conquest of the Donetsk region.
Independent military observers have indicated that a Ukrainian retreat from the city’s eastern part, where the defenders only control a smaller bridgehead, could be imminent.
The Bakhmutka river, which flows through the town, could now serve the Ukrainians as a natural barrier to repel further Russian attacks from this direction. However, it remains important for Ukraine to secure the access routes in the west in order to supply its troops with supplies.
Also on Wednesday, the head of Ukrainian utility Ukrenergo said that Ukraine’s power system had managed to survive a tough winter marked by repeated Russian missile attacks on electrical infrastructure.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said on Ukrainian television that there have been no new power shortages over the past 25 days and no power shortage is foreseeable. Power supply difficulties have been overcome unless Russia launches new attacks, Kudrytskyi said.
“The hardest winter in our history is over,” he said in Kiev. “The power system is now able to meet existing consumption, and that’s a very good sign for all of us.”
Kudrytskyi attributed the improved situation to successful repairs to the power grid and the completed maintenance of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. Hydropower plants supplied more electricity because of the spring floods. Higher temperatures meant lower consumption.
GNA