“Russia seized the initiative on the front lines last year and can therefore extract the concessions it wants on the terms of a settlement in talks to end the war, although it will not be able to get all of its terms met. “US intelligence says in its report.
According to the US assessment, a war of attrition is playing to Russia’s advantage and “will lead to a gradual but steady weakening of Kyiv’s position on the battlefield, regardless of any efforts by the US or its allies to impose new and higher costs on Moscow.”
For the US, continuing the war in Ukraine “increases the strategic risks of inadvertent escalation to a large-scale war and the use of nuclear weapons, increased instability among NATO allies, particularly in Central, Eastern, and…
