Russian President Vladimir Putin still intends to invade most of Ukraine, US intelligence agencies say.

However, Moscow troops have been weakened so much by the fighting, so US officials estimate that they are able to make only slow territorial gains, reports Telegrafi.

That means the war could go on for a long time, says Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

In March, Moscow refocused its efforts to occupy the Donbas area of ​​Ukraine after failing to occupy Kiev and other cities.

But Putin still has the same goals he had at the beginning of the conflict, said Haines, the top US intelligence official, to take over most of Ukraine.

But, she says, Russia is unlikely to achieve that goal any time soon.

"We perceive a disconnect between Putin's short-term military objectives in this area and the capacity of his military, a kind of mismatch between his ambitions and what the military is capable of achieving," she told a US Commerce Department conference. -së.

Since failing to achieve its original goal of occupying Kiev, Russia has focused on gaining territory in the eastern Donbas region - a large industrial area where Putin falsely claims that Ukraine committed genocide against Russian-speakers.

Russian forces have made advances there, recently taking control of the city of Severodonetsk, but progress has been slow and Ukrainian forces have put up strong resistance.