Russian military failures will force Putin to change war goals, says US intelligence

“We’re coming to a point right now where I think Putin is going to have to revise what his objectives are for this operation,” Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier said.

He also emphasized that it is now quite clear that Putin "is not going to be able to do what he initially intended to do."

Read also: Attacks on civilian infrastructure sign of Russia’s defeat in war, says Zelenskyy

“He’s coming to a decision point,” Berrier said.

“What that decision will be, we don't know. But that will largely drive how long this conflict lasts.”

Ukraine’s Armed Forces continue to liberate settlements in the east and south of Ukraine from Russian occupation.

On the evening of Sept. 13, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian defenders had liberated about 8,000 square kilometers of territory, and stabilization measures are underway.

Read also: Kharkiv Oblast is free, Kherson is next, and Zaporizhzhia NPP completely shuts down

Later, the Ukrainian leader noted that it was too early to talk about the end of the full-scale war unleashed by Russia, despite the swift counteroffensive.

The Russian Ministry of Defense recognized the retreat of its army on the Kharkiv axis, calling it a "regrouping." The ministry claimed that in order to achieve its war goals, they had allegedly decided to regroup troops in the Balakliya and Izyum regions in order to increase efforts on the Donetsk axis. However, this claim is false, and multiple reports paint the Russian retreat from Kharkiv Oblast as a complete rout.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine