(RepublicanInformer.com)- In a speech last week, CIA Director William Burns said the intel community first became aware of Russia’s plan to invade Ukraine early last fall.
Speaking at Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs last Thursday, Burns said in the fall of 2021, the CIA and others in the intelligence community began gathering “disturbing and detailed intelligence” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to launch a “major new invasion of Ukraine.”
This seemed self-explanatory to Burns who noted the importance a “deferential Ukraine” has to Russia.
Burns said the president had asked him to travel to Russia in early November to deliver a message to Putin and his advisors both conveying the US’s concern over his plans for war and warning Russia of the consequences of such an action.
While there, Burns said he was “troubled by what I heard.” Even though Putin hadn’t made his final decision to invade Ukraine, Burns explained, he was “defiantly leaning in that direction.” Burns said Putin may have been “convinced” that “his window was closing.”
Burns said that during his November trip to Russia, Putin “seemed convinced” that the right time to invade Ukraine was during winter because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian military would be unlikely to mount an “effective resistance.”
Burns surmised during his trip that Putin believed the Russian military would secure a “quick, decisive victory at minimal costs” at a time when European leaders were “distracted by their own politics.” He said he also concluded Putin believed Russia’s economy was “sanctions-proof.”
Is William Burns the CIA Director or a mind-reader? He certainly claims to know a lot about what Vladimir was thinking.
Burns told the audience that after Putin launched the invasion, he was “proven wrong on each of those accounts.”
Or, perhaps William Burns was simply wrong in what he thought Putin was thinking.
What Burns failed to explain is why the United States intelligence community also got it so wrong. US intelligence also believed that Russian forces would swiftly defeat the smaller Ukrainian military.
Ukraine’s resistance to Russia didn’t just come as a surprise to the Kremlin; it also took the Pentagon and intel community by surprise as well.
