US intelligence agencies assess that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not scaled back his military ambitions in Ukraine and still wants to bring the entire country under Russian control. Six sources familiar with recent assessments said the findings also warn that Putin ultimately aims to reassert influence over parts of Europe that once belonged to the Soviet Union.
The reports indicate that Russia’s goals remain unchanged even as US, Ukrainian and European negotiators discuss possible frameworks to end the nearly four year war. Current diplomatic proposals under review would leave Russia with far less territory than it now occupies, but there is no sign from US intelligence that Putin is ready to accept such limits.
Russia currently controls about 20 percent of Ukraine, including the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and Crimea, which Moscow claims to have annexed. Intelligence sources say the Kremlin still sees these areas as only part of a broader objective to dominate Ukraine politically and militarily.
The assessments have remained largely consistent since Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022 and line up with the views of many European security services. Officials say Putin appears to believe that time, military pressure and political fatigue in the West will eventually force Kyiv and its allies to accept Russian terms.
While peace talks continue, Washington under President Donald Trump is pressing for a negotiated settlement that would stop the fighting and lock in new security guarantees for Ukraine. Draft ideas discussed in Berlin include limits on Ukraine’s armed forces and a security arrangement built mainly around European troops on Ukrainian soil.
Trump has pushed Ukraine to cede control of two parts of Donetsk that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has publicly refused to give up. It is still unclear whether Putin would accept any deal that allows foreign forces and long term Western security guarantees to remain in Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there has been some progress in the talks but warned there is still a long way to go to reach a final agreement. He stressed that Washington cannot force either side to make a deal and is instead trying to identify any overlap where Ukrainian and Russian positions might eventually meet.
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