The Kremlin has said that reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine and take back European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union are false.
“This is absolutely not true,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 22 December.
He said that if media reports that US intelligence believes so are true, in which case the intelligence is wrong, he said.
“We have indeed seen some scattered reports on this, but even if it is true, it is from the category of a situation when the intelligence makes some erroneous reasoning, research and conclusions,” Peskov said.
Earlier, news agencies, amid peace talks aimed at resolving Russia’s war against Ukraine, quoted sources as saying US intelligence reports warned that Putin was seeking to seize all of Ukraine and reclaim territory formerly belonging to the former Soviet empire. This contradicts official US claims that Russia is seeking a peace deal. Putin, meanwhile, has repeatedly claimed he poses no threat to Europe.
“The intelligence community has always noted that Putin wants more,” Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters. – Europeans are convinced of that. The Poles are absolutely convinced of that. The Baltic states think they are the first.”
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard the day before denied reports of such intelligence findings. Gabbard called it “lies and propaganda” by “warmongers” who want to “undermine President Trump’s tireless efforts to end this bloody war.”
“The truth is that the U.S. intelligence community has informed policymakers … that U.S. intelligence assesses that Russia is seeking to avoid a larger war with NATO. The intelligence community also believes that, as the past few years have shown, Russia’s actions on the battlefield indicate that it does not yet have the capability to conquer and occupy all of Ukraine, let alone Europe,” the intelligence director wrote on social network X.
Analysts at the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) have previously said repeatedly that the Kremlin is not interested in good-faith peace talks to end the war against Ukraine, and that they have seen no signs that the Kremlin is willing to “accept anything less than Ukraine’s surrender” to all its military demands.
In the autumn, the Institute for the Study of War wrote in a report that Russia had entered “phase zero” of its campaign to prepare for a possible future war with NATO.
In September, NATO countries accused Russia several times of unprecedented violations of its airspace. Russia denies the accusations.
European intelligence agencies do not rule out a Russian attack on the Baltic states within the next few years. In September, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia and China are preparing for a long-term confrontation.