CIA chief says he’s still optimistic about Kyiv’s counteroffensive

US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said Thursday that he remains optimistic Ukraine will be able to make advances its counteroffensive against Russia, based on the intelligence he has reviewed, Report informs, referring to Bloomberg.

Russia suffers from some significant “structural weaknesses” behind the considerable defenses it has built up, Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. Those weaknesses include poor morale, poor generalship and “disarray” among its political and military leadership.

“It is going to be a tough slog, but we’re going to do everything we can as an intelligence agency to provide the kind of intelligence support and sharing that’s going to help the Ukrainians to make progress,” Burns said.

Burns said that mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny in June had “exposed some of the significant weaknesses in the system that Putin has built.”