Brussels March 16 2022: Nato senior military officials say President Putin has clearly not achieved his military goals in Ukraine so far and “probably will not at the end of the day”.
But they added that Russian forces still had the capacity to do “a lot of damage”.
The defence officials said that while Russian forces had made gains in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, they had still failed to encircle Kyiv – which they said Russia had expected to do in a matter of days.
An expected Russian amphibious assault in the south near Odessa had also, so far, failed to materialise.
The Nato officials believe that Russia’s original military plan had included taking all of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast – right up to Moldova.
They assessed that Russia’s invasion force was suffering from a lack of fuel and food as well as suffering losses. They said that President Putin was already looking for reinforcements.
One official said it was “highly likely” that would involve bringing in foreign fighters from Syria and private military contractors – such as the Wagner group – to Ukraine.
Another official added that Russia’s military reserves “were not a secret weapon”. He said that calling on reserve forces was “scratching the bottom of the barrel”.
Nato officials say that allies and member states are continuing to send weapons to Ukraine. They said that included old Soviet weaponry, which Ukrainian forces would have been trained to use, as well as Western supplied anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
