CIA Director claims 'Putin planned to capture Kyiv in 2 days' as invasion enters Day 14

As Russia's Ukrainian invasion stretches for the 14th day, CIA director William Burns said that President Vladimir Putin had planned to seize control of Kyiv within two days of the start of the invasion. At the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Burns claimed that Putin was frustrated due to prolonged war and that the Russian casualties had far exceeded their anticipation. Currently, Russian forces have announced a 1-day humanitarian ceasefire in Ukrainian cities like Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Zaporizhzhia.

CIA: 'Putin planned to capture Kyiv in 2 days'

"Instead of seizing Kyiv within the first two days of the campaign, which is what his plan was premised upon, the Russians still have not been able to fully encircle Ukraine's capital city. I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now. The Russian military casualties far exceed what Putin anticipated," said Putin.

He warned that the next few weeks may turn 'ugly' as the invasion is a matter of deep personal conviction. He claimed that Putin has been stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years. He added, "Putin is likely to double down with no regard to civilian casualties but he has no sustainable political end game". 

Putin has issued three demands to stop his attack on Kyiv - Ukraine cease military action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, "I think that items regarding temporarily occupied territories and pseudo-republics not recognized by anyone but Russia, we can discuss and find a compromise", in an interview to ABC news. He has also said, "We have understood NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine".

Russia's 'humanitarian corridors'

Russia has announced a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine for Wednesday morning for the evacuation of the civilian population, as per Sputnik News. Russia said that they are ready to provide corridors from Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Zaporizhzhia. The announcement comes as both sides have blamed each other for disrupting humanitarian corridors as 700 Indian students were finally evacuated Sumy and are enroute to India.

For weeks, Moscow massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in a bid to pressurise Western nations to not allow Ukraine to join NATO, threatening an invasion. Last week, Putin ordered a special military operation in Ukraine's Donbas region, which quickly accelerated into precision airstrikes on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, deployed tanks towards Lviv from the Belarus-Ukraine border. Russia has already taken over two Ukrainian nuclear power plants - Chernobyl &  Zaporizhzhya and is heading towards Yuzhnoukrainsk. Over 2 million Ukrainians have fled and many are housed in bomb shelters.