Andrei Piontkovsky: Putin Hopes For 'Honourable Draw' In Ukraine

This is what he is asking the West about.

Western intelligence warned of a massive offensive by the occupiers in Ukraine this winter, but the Russians lack the resources to achieve significant results, says Russian political scientist and publicist Andrei Piontkovsky, who lives in the US. He expressed this opinion in an interview with Alesa Batsman, editor-in-chief of the online publication of GORDON.

"Everybody was expecting a Russian winter offensive. American intelligence warned very persistently in early February that there would be an offensive. And not just the traditional one - the corpses of mobilized would be thrown at Ukrainian positions - mechanised columns of tanks. Well, we saw these tanks near Vuhledar," Piontkovsky said.

Later, he notes, intelligence agencies predicted "some kind of psychic air attack": a massive accumulation of aviation on Ukrainian borders and its use in Ukraine. This forecast was not confirmed, both the US and Ukraine noted.

"They didn't go into this psychic one. They don't have the resource. And we can see by all the diplomatic activity... I can see by all the activities of the whole Russian fifth column: by any means to persuade for some kind of ceasefire, for some kind of negotiations, so that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can 'sell' something. Putin, in essence, openly says, in plain text, to his former Western partners: "Give me at least some piece of Ukrainian territory so that I can sell it to my people, if not as a victory, then as an honourable draw. And thus hold on to power," Piontkovsky believes.