WASHINGTON. March 26 (Interfax) - Russian military operations in Ukraine will result in a gradual but steady erosion of Kiev's forces on the battlefield, a U.S. intelligence report said.
"This grinding war of attrition will lead to a gradual but steady erosion of Kiev's position on the battlefield, regardless of any U.S. or allied attempts to impose new and greater costs on Moscow," the Office of the Director of U.S. National Intelligence said in the report.
Russia has seized the upper hand in its operations in Ukraine last year and is on a path to accrue greater leverage to press Kiev and its Western allies to negotiate an end to the war that grants Moscow concessions it seeks, it said.
"Continuing the Russia-Ukraine war perpetuates strategic risks to the United States of unintended escalation to large-scale war, the potential use of nuclear weapons, heightened insecurity among NATO Allies, particularly in Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe, and a more emboldened China and North Korea," it said.
Moscow's rising defense spending and investments in the defense sector will continue to enable a high level of production of critical types of weapons, such as artillery, long-range missiles, oneway attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and glide bombs, and ensure Russia retains a firepower advantage over Ukraine, it said.