US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at a press briefing at the White House, Washington, D.C., July 23, 2025 (Kent Nishimura/Reuters)


Ukraine War, Day 1,396: US Intelligence — Putin Still Wants to Seize All of Ukraine and Parts of Europe


Joining India’s WION on Sunday, I analyze why US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard allied with the Kremlin against the US intelligence community’s assessment that Vladimir Putin still wants to seize all of Ukraine and other areas in Europe that were part of the Soviet Union.

After Reuters published an article about the assessment, Gabbard repeated Russia’s talking points on social media. She said the evlauation of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was “fomenting hysteria and fear among the people to get them to support the escalation of war, which is what NATO and the EU really want in order to pull the United States military directly into war with Russia”.

I set out the reality. It wasn’t Ukraine that invaded Russia on February 24, 2022. It was not NATO or the European Union. Rather, it was Putin who launched the full-scale invasion to conquer Ukraine, trying to seize Kyiv and capturing or killing President Volodymyr Zelensky and his ministers.

Then I remind viewers about Gabbard’s long-term promotion, before she took office, of the Kremlin’s lines from Ukraine to Europe to Syria. I explain that former General Michael Flynn, who echoed Gabbard’s statement, is a disgraced Trumpist conspiracy theorist who had to resign over his collusion with the Russians.

Watch from 3:45: