CIA chief optimistic Ukraine will make new advances in its counteroffensive

The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, said on Thursday that he remains optimistic that Ukraine will be able to conduct successful offensive actions against Russia.

Bloomberg reports that speaking at a security forum in Aspen, Colorado, Burns said Russia suffers from some significant "structural weaknesses" behind the considerable defenses it has built up, including 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.

He said that Yevgeny Prigozhin's short-lived mutiny in June "exposed some of the significant weaknesses in the system that Putin has built."

"For a lot of Russians watching this used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was does the emperor have no clothes or at least why does it take so long for him to get dressed," Burns said.

According to the CIA chief, Putin is likely to try not to create the impression that he is overreacting to the mutiny while at the same time trying to extract all potential assets from the Wagner PMC. Burns added that Prigozhin would most likely get retribution from the Russian dictator at some point.

"Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback," Burns said. "If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn't fire my food taster."