[Tee tiong huat]

Vladimir Putin remains intent on trying to defeat and dominate Ukraine two years after launching an invasion that has caused more than half a million casualties, western officials said in a fresh assessment of the war. However, Putin is not thought to have any clearcut medium-term strategy, the officials added. 

“We do not believe Russia has a meaningful plan beyond continuing to fight in the expectation that Russian manpower and equipment numbers will eventually tell,” they said. The officials also said they believed that “sanctions are hitting the Russian military complex hard”, causing severe delays and higher costs as Moscow scrambles to deal with shortages of western components.