Russia ‘running out of steam’, has little chance of regaining momentum, says MI6 chief

Russian troops have few chances to regain momentum on the battlefield, Richard Moore, the head of the UK's foreign intelligence, MI6, said on Wednesday.

• Subscribe to LIGA.net in English on Twitter

In his second public speech since his appointment in 2020, at the British Embassy in the Czech Republic, Mr Moore highlighted the challenges the Russians had been facing in their war of aggression against Ukraine.

"Ukraine’s armed forces are now on the offensive, demonstrating their astonishing ability to innovate and mobilise new technology," he said.

"Last summer, at the Aspen Security Conference, I noted that the Russian effort appeared to be "running out of steam" – it was and there appears now to be little prospect of the Russian forces regaining momentum.

"In the last month, Ukraine has liberated more territory than Russia captured in the last year"

Moore called the Ukrainian efforts "a hard grind" of enemy forces. He noted that the Ukrainian military command "are rather in stark contrast" to Russian military leaders as they "preserve the lines of their troops and therefore move with caution" through mined areas under enemy fire.

"So I do remain optimistic about [the counteroffensive]. I do believe the resolve to support the Ukrainians [among the allies] is as strong as it ever was," the head of MI6 stressed.

Moore said that the allies’ task is to give Ukraine the support it needs to end the war in a strong position to negotiate, while Moscow’s bet on exhausting Ukraine and its allies with a protracted war "will not work."