London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

Putin believes he cannot ‘afford to lose’ Ukraine war: CIA chief

Putin believes he cannot ‘afford to lose’ Ukraine war: CIA chief

CIA chief says Putin believes ‘doubling down’ on war against Ukraine ‘will enable him to make progress’.

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that he cannot afford to lose in Ukraine and is “doubling down” on the war, but does not show signs of planning to use tactical nuclear weapons, CIA director Bill Burns said.

Despite the failure of Russian forces to capture Kyiv and their struggle to advance along the war’s main front lines in the southeastern Donbas region, Putin has not changed his view that his troops can defeat Ukraine’s forces, the CIA director said on Saturday.

Putin’s belief in Russia’s ability to wear down Ukrainian resistance probably has not been shaken despite key battlefield defeats, Burns told a conference.

“I think he’s in a frame of mind in which he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose,” Burns said.

The US intelligence agency chief said that Putin has been “stewing” for years about Ukraine – which was once part of the Soviet Union – describing the Russian leader’s thinking on the issue as a “very combustible combination of grievance and ambition and insecurity”.

The Russian leader has not been deterred by the stiff resistance demonstrated by Ukraine’s armed forces in the war, “because he staked so much on the choices that he made to launch this invasion,” Burns said.

“I think he’s convinced right now that doubling down still will enable him to make progress.”


Tactical nuclear weapons


Burns, a former US ambassador to Russia who has spent much time studying the Russian leader, said the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies see no sign that Moscow is prepared to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in order to gain a victory in Ukraine or to target Kyiv’s supporters.


Russia had placed its nuclear forces on high alert shortly after launching the invasion on February 24. Since then, Putin and other Russian officials have made thinly veiled threats hinting at a willingness to deploy Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons if the West directly intervenes in the Ukraine conflict.

“We don’t see, as an intelligence community, practical evidence at this point of Russian planning for the deployment or even potential use of tactical nuclear weapons,” Burns said.

“Given the kind of sabre-rattling that … we’ve heard from the Russian leadership, we can’t take lightly those possibilities,” he added.

“So we stay very sharply focused as an intelligence service … on those possibilities at a moment when the stakes are very high for Russia.”

Burns did not offer any assessment of the current battlefield situation in Ukraine or predict how the war might end.


China ‘unsettled’


The CIA director said that China, which Washington now sees as its primary adversary, is studying closely the lessons of the war in Ukraine and what that may mean for Beijing’s desire to take control of Taiwan.

Burns said he does not believe that Chinese President Xi Jinping has altered his goal of eventually uniting Taiwan with China, by force if necessary.

But he believed that Beijing has been “surprised” by the poor performance of Russian military forces, as well as the tough resistance coming from the entire Ukrainian society, as well as the strong military support the West has provided Kyiv.

Russia’s experience in Ukraine is probably affecting Beijing’s calculation “about how and when” they try to gain control of Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province.

“I think they’ve been struck by the way in which particularly the transatlantic alliance has come together to impose economic costs on Russia as a result of that aggression,” he continued.

Beijing has been “unsettled by the fact that what Putin has done is to drive Europeans and Americans closer together,” Burns said.

“What conclusions get drawn from all that remains a question mark,” he said.

“I think the Chinese leadership is looking very carefully at all this, at the costs and consequences of any effort to use force to gain control over Taiwan.”


Comments

Oh ya 3 year ago
No country can afford to lose a war but the US has learned to accept it better than most. Everything from the Korean War to present times the US has lost. And now they are fighting a proxy war in Ukraine that they will lose also.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
×