By Jonathan Landay, Erin Banco and John Irish
WASHINGTON/PARIS – U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not given up on his goals of conquering all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, six sources familiar with U.S. intelligence said, even as negotiators seek to end a war that would leave Russia with much smaller territory.
The reports paint a starkly different picture than that painted by US President Donald Trump and his Ukraine peace negotiators, who have said Putin wants to end the conflict. The most recent of the reports comes from late September, one of the sources said.
Intelligence also contradicts the Russian leader’s denials that he is a threat to Europe.
The U.S. findings have been consistent since Putin launched his large-scale invasion in 2022. They largely agree with European leaders and intelligence agencies that they want all of Ukraine and the territories of former Soviet bloc states, including members of the NATO alliance, according to the sources.
“The intelligence has always said that Putin wants more,” Mike Quigley, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters in an interview. “The Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they are the first.”
Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including most of Luhansk and Donetsk, the provinces that make up the industrial heart of Donbass, parts of Zaporozhye and Kherson provinces, and Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula.
Putin claims that Crimea and all four provinces belong to Russia. Trump is pushing Kiev to withdraw its forces from the small part of Donetsk it controls as part of a proposed peace deal, according to two sources familiar with the matter, a demand that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and most Ukrainians reject.
“The president’s team has made tremendous progress on ending the war” and Trump said a peace deal “is closer than ever,” a White House official said, without addressing the intelligence reports.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in an X post on Saturday that intelligence officers had informed lawmakers that “Russia is trying to avoid a larger war with Europe” and that the performance of its troops in Ukraine shows it currently lacks the capacity to occupy “all of Ukraine, let alone Europe.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA and the Russian Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
PROGRESS IN PROVIDING SAFETY GUARANTEES
Trump’s negotiators — his son-in-law Jared Kushner and billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff — have been negotiating a 20-point peace plan with Ukrainian, Russian and European officials for weeks.
While US officials say they have made progress, major differences remain over the territory.
Kushner and Witkoff met with Ukrainian negotiators in Miami on Friday and were expected to hold talks with Russian representatives this weekend, a White House official said.
US, Ukrainian and European negotiators reached a broad consensus at talks in Berlin on Monday on what four European diplomats and two sources familiar with the matter said were robust US-backed security guarantees for Ukraine against future Russian aggression.
One source and diplomat said those guarantees depend on Zelensky agreeing to cede territory to Russia. However, other diplomats said that is not the case and alternatives are still being explored, as Zelensky has ruled out ceding territory.
Diplomats said the safeguards, which will come into effect after the peace deal is signed, require the deployment of mostly European security forces in neighboring countries and Ukraine outside the front lines to help repel any future Russian attack.
Ukraine’s army will be limited to 800,000, the source said. But several diplomats said Russia was seeking a lower cap, which the Americans were open to.
The US would provide intelligence and other support and the package would be ratified by the US Senate, they said. Washington’s plan would also include US-backed air patrols over Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the talks.
Zelenskyy appeared cautious about the proposals on Thursday, saying: “There’s a question I still can’t get an answer to: What will these security guarantees actually do?”
And it is deeply uncertain whether Putin will agree to such guarantees, as he has repeatedly rejected the deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine.
RUSSIA IS STILL PUSHING TERRITORIAL CLAIMS
Putin offered no compromises on Friday, although he said at an annual news conference that he was ready to negotiate for peace.
He said his conditions would have to be met as his forces had advanced 6,000 sq km this year.
It is unclear how US officials responded to Putin’s demands. Witkoff has previously suggested that Russia has the right to claim the four provinces and Crimea.
Some Trump administration officials have acknowledged that Putin may not be willing to settle for less than his original goal of conquering Ukraine.
“I don’t know if Putin wants to make a deal or if Putin wants to take the whole country. Those are the things he’s said openly,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference on Friday.
“We know what they initially wanted to achieve when the war started. They didn’t achieve those goals.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency source without text modification.
