Weapons to Bleed, Not to Win: Ex-CIA Chief Criticizes West’s Reluctance in Ukraine

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Weapons to Bleed, Not to Win: Ex-CIA Chief Criticizes West’s Reluctance in Ukraine

 

Ralph Goff, a former CIA operations chief with decades of experience and a deep understanding of Russia and Ukraine, has sharply criticized the U.S. administration's approach to the war in Ukraine, saying the weapons provided were never intended to help Kyiv win—only to ensure it could continue fighting. Goff, who once headed CIA operations in Europe and Eurasia, believes the seeds of the current crisis were planted as far back as 2014 when Russian forces seized Crimea under Vladimir Putin’s direction.

 

“I was trying to ring the alarm bell that the seeds of World War Three are being sown in the Donbas right now and we need to do something about it,” Goff said, recalling his efforts to alert Washington during his tenure. However, he said those warnings were not prioritized at the time.

 

Earlier this year, Goff was poised to take over as the CIA’s chief of clandestine operations, a move aimed at reforming the agency’s often overly cautious approach. But the Trump administration reportedly blocked the appointment. “I think people close to the president thought, ‘Who is this guy, who does he think he is?’, and went and looked and saw I wasn’t one of their people and they said, ‘No, we don’t approve,’” Goff told The Times in an interview from Paris. He suspects his strong support for Ukraine may have played a role in the decision. “Politics definitely played a role there but, what are you going to do. They can pick who they want,” he added.

 

At the time, Trump had already installed loyalists in key intelligence positions, including Kash Patel and Dan Bongino at the FBI and Tulsi Gabbard, a Putin sympathizer, as director of national intelligence. Meanwhile, Goff had retired from the CIA in October 2023 and made several trips to Ukraine, deepening his understanding of the conflict and Kyiv’s desperate need for decisive Western support.

 

In Goff’s view, the war that erupted in full force in February 2022 could have been prevented or at least contained if the U.S. and its allies had supplied Ukraine with more powerful weapons earlier. Instead, he believes there was a conscious decision to avoid provoking Putin too far, fearing a nuclear response. “Had we equipped the Ukrainians at that time with proper weaponry, they might have been able to drive the Russians all the way out of the country. It didn’t happen. It set the stage for this longer, protracted, drawn out, meat grinder war that we are witnessing today,” he said.

 

He accuses the Biden administration of hesitating at critical moments and allowing Putin’s nuclear threats to shape Western strategy. “[They] allowed themselves to be bamboozled by Vladimir Putin and his nuclear-sabre rattling. So they gave the Ukrainians this weaponry but they never gave them enough to win. They only gave them enough to bleed,” Goff stated. He even pointed to Putin’s obsessive fear of COVID-19 as evidence that the Russian leader is unlikely to risk a nuclear confrontation. “In my mind, people who are that concerned with their health are not about to play high stakes nuclear poker,” he added.

 

Looking ahead, Goff believes Trump may attempt to charm or flatter Putin in an effort to pull him away from a strategic alliance with China. However, he warns that Putin, a seasoned intelligence operative, may try to manipulate Trump—though he is confident that such a strategy will ultimately fail. “Putin will eventually overplay his hand with the administration and show them where the problem lies and the problem is in Moscow not in Kyiv,” Goff explained.

 

The consequences of inaction could be dire. Goff cited one Ukrainian official who warned him that without a meaningful resolution, the front lines will soon become an inescapable “death zone” stretching 20 to 50 kilometers. “Where you can’t move because there are so many drones in the air and robots on the ground and sensors and mines,” Goff relayed. “It will be an incredibly lethal environment.”

 

  Adpated by ASEAN Now from The Times  2025-05-05