Members of Ukraine’s 95th Air Assault Brigade defend an area near the front line of combat on Jan. 12, 2023, outside Kremina, Ukraine.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The director of America’s spy agency has described Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “breaking conflict” that requires the West to continue providing security aid packages for Kyiv to win.
US Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum that the Ukrainian and Russian militaries face significant challenges, but the war has not reached a stalemate.
“It’s not a stalemate, it’s actually, a terrible conflict, literally, we’re talking about hundreds of meters of fighting in the context of the front line,” Haines said in Davos, Switzerland.
“It is very important for Ukraine to receive the necessary military assistance and economic assistance going forward in order to continue to manage what it has done so heroically,” he said.
The US has contributed the largest security aid to the war. Last week, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced one of the largest arms packages since Russia’s full-scale invasion began almost a year ago.
Austin said the latest package of US military equipment for Ukraine is worth $2.5 billion and will help “meet Ukraine’s most critical battlefield needs.”
The upcoming military aid, the 30th tranche, brings the US commitment to the Ukraine war to more than $26 billion since the beginning of the Biden administration.
Ukrainian soldiers hold a Next Generation Light Anti-armor Weapon (NLAW) in a position not far from the front line in the southern part of Kharkiv region, on July 11, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Anatoly Stepanov Afp | Getty Images
“Arms are the way to peace,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said alongside Haines. “It may seem paradoxical, but the only way to make a negotiated agreement is to convince the President. [Vladimir] Putin that he will not win on the battlefield and that he should sit down and negotiate.
Stoltenberg added that the Ukraine war has the full force of the 30-member NATO alliance because it is “a war for democracy.” He said that “it is very important that President Putin does not win this war, it will be a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it will also be very dangerous for all of us.”
Polish President Andrzej Duda said the West must do more to support Ukraine, adding that aid from allies “is still not enough.”
“Ukraine needs more effort, it needs more help and we have to extend ourselves to help because the situation is very difficult,” he said, adding that the war is approaching a critical time.
