Kyiv’s fiercer-than-expected defense may have blunted Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but that doesn’t mean Russian President Vladimir Putin has abandoned his ambitions to conquer his smaller neighbor, a senior Pentagon official said this week at a D.C. think tank.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said he still believes Mr. Putin has designs on “a significant portion of Ukraine, if not the whole country.”
“They may make tactical gains here and there, (but) the Ukrainians are holding up,” Mr. Kahl said Tuesday at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security. “I do not think the Russians have the capacity to achieve those grandiose objectives.