Ukraine to lose significant ground to Russia without US support, CIA head warns

Damaged buildings in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region after Russian forces completed their takeover of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. Photo / AP

Ukraine risks losing “significant ground” to Russia in 2024, the head of the CIA has warned, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he was building 1000km of front-line defences.

Ukraine is under pressure to maintain its southeastern front line after Vladimir Putin’s forces overran Avdiivka on February 17 – Russia’s first capture of a city in nine months.

Yesterday, a joint report by the US’s intelligence agencies found the war’s “deadlock … plays to Russia’s strategic military advantages and is increasingly shifting the momentum in Moscow’s favour”.

The annual threat assessment said Russia remained a “resilient and capable adversary” and was “benefiting from uncertainties about the future of Western military assistance”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers media questions during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo / AP

Addressing the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA director William Burns said more losses were likely unless Congress can pass Joe Biden’s Ukraine aid package, which has been opposed by Republicans.

“It’s our assessment that with supplemental assistance, Ukraine can hold its own on the front lines through 2024 and into early 2025,” he said.

“However, without supplemental assistance, lies a much grimmer future. Ukraine is likely to lose ground, and probably significant ground, in 2024.”

US national intelligence director Avril Haines said Ukraine’s retreat from Avdiivka had “exposed the erosion of Ukraine’s military capabilities”.