Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency William Burns said that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine can only be considered a failure, writes The New York Times. Burns noted that after six months of the most brutal war, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive.

Speaking about the counter-offensive attacks in southern Ukraine and the Kharkiv region, the CIA director noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin greatly underestimated the courage and ability of Ukrainians to fight. According to Burns, although the last chapter in this war has not yet been written, "

The director of the CIA is sure that the Russian president was surrounded by advisers who did not want to challenge him. Also, according to Burns, Putin mistakenly believes that European resolve will be shaken, and American attention to the Russian-Ukrainian war will disappear if the fighting drags on for a long time..

“Now Putin is betting that he will be tougher than Ukrainians, Europeans, Americans. I believe, and my CIA colleagues believe, that Putin is wrong on this rate, just as he was deeply mistaken in his assumptions last February about Ukraine's will to resist,” Burns said during a speech at the Billington CyberSecurity conference in Washington..

He added that Putin's position had serious consequences.. In particular, not only was the weakness of the Russian army revealed, the war unleashed by Russia also caused long-term damage to the Russian economy and generations of Russians.

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Recall, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that from September 1 to September 9, the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to liberate more than 1,000 square meters of Ukrainian territory from the occupying forces..

Analysts of the US Institute for the Study of War called the success of the defenders in the Kharkiv region significant. They believe that if this pace continues, then the settlement of Kupyansk can be released already within 72 hours..