Date: Friday, 02 January 2026
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/scott-ritter-ukraines-defeat-will
https://theduran.com/scott-ritter-ukraines-defeat-will-be-very-soon-russia-goes-in-for
Scott Ritter: Ukraine’s Defeat Will Be ‘Very Soon’; Russia Goes In for the Kill
2 January 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
On January 2nd, Ukraine’s resistance to Russian assaults is collapsing, and there is near certainty that Russia is preparing its final assault to replace Ukraine’s government to begin very soon, perhaps before this month is out.
On December 29th, Russia’s RT News headlined “Ukraine launched 91 kamikaze drones at Putin’s state residence – Lavrov. Moscow will review its negotiating position given that Kiev has fully turned to state terrorism, Sergey Lavrov has stated.” Foreign Minister Lavrov stated “We do not intend to withdraw from the negotiation process with the US. However, given the complete degeneration of the criminal Kiev regime, which has shifted to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised.” This was the boldest statement by any Russsian official ever indicating that Russia’s negotiating positon on the Ukraine war will be revised.
The U.S.-and-allied Deep State, which constantly propagandizes for regime-change in Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, and other nations it intends to take over, quickly expressed skepticism about the Russian Government’s statements on this; and for a few days Russia’s Government provided no evidence, while it was searching for and examining the wreckages of the drones; then, finally, today, Russia delivered to Trump, through an unnamed U.S. official in Moscow, the proof-positive.
RT posted to Elon Musk’s x, of all places, the brief but historic video of the hand-off:
https://x.com/RT_com/status/2006776256109690908.
It shows that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was visited by the Russian Government on January 2nd, to present to the U.S. President a very important item of evidence. The Russian presenter said:
“I am the chief of the main intelligence directorate of the general staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Admiral Kostyukov. I have come to see you on an important matter. We would like to inform you that we have found the wreckage of drones that carried out the attack. A number of these unmanned aerial vehicles have well-preserved navigation systems. They are technically sound. A decryption of the memory contents of the navigation controllers of the unmanned aerial vehicles, performed by specialists from the Russian Federation’s security services, has unequivocally confirmed that the target of the attack was the complex of buildings housing the Russian President’s residence in the Novgorod region. We would like to provide you with a controller and description of this controller made by our specialists. We believe that this step will resolve alll questions.”
The U.S. attache is shown slipping the device into a package, presumably to be delivered to U.S. intelligence services for analysis to be presented to President Trump.
When Lavrov said that “Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” he couldn’t have known to what extent; but this brief video showed that Russia’s Government now has no doubt whatsoever that the December 29th drone-attack was intended to destroy Putin’s residence there and maybe even to assassinate him.
Here is the presentation that Scott Ritter made on January 2nd about what Russia’s response to that attack will likely be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iW1rBg4eHU
“100,000 Drones Ready! Russia Secret Plan to Darken EU Skies | Scott Ritter”
2 January 2026, Craft Campus
“In this shocking update, Scott Ritter reveals the catastrophic state of the Ukrainian frontlines, reporting that elite units like the 25th and 38th Brigades are surrounded, starving, and cut off from supplies. Ritter claims that despite their desperate situation, Zelensky has issued a ‘fight and die’ order, refusing to allow them to escape.
Ritter also outlines Russia's strict conditions for any future peace deal: Ukraine will be forced to demilitarize down to just 50,000 lightly armed troops, with absolutely no NATO-trained personnel allowed. He further exposes alleged atrocities in [Russia’s region of] Kursk, stating that Russian forces have evidence of elderly civilians being ‘butchered and raped,’ and warns that there will be no amnesty — Moscow will hunt down the perpetrators globally.
Key topics discussed in this video:
Army Collapse: Elite brigades trapped without food or evacuation for the wounded.
Demilitarization: Russia to limit Ukraine's army to 50k troops (No NATO).
Zelensky's Order: Why Kiev is sacrificing its best soldiers.
Kursk War Crimes: Horrific details of atrocities against civilians.
No Amnesty: Russia's plan to dismantle the current political regime and punish war criminals.
Drone Warfare: How Russia is cutting off supply lines with total air dominance.
Watch to understand the brutal reality of the war's final phase.
Transcript
0:00
There will be nothing more. Russia won't accept it. Ukraine had a 260,000 strong
0:05
military trained by NATO at the beginning of this conflict that was prepared to invade the Dunbas and
0:11
slaughter the Russian speakers of the Dunbas. That's 260,000 NATO trained.
0:16
That army won't be allowed to exist. Now Ukraine has this fantasy of 600 to 800,000 troops. First of all, they don't
0:23
have them. But um even if they did, Russia won't allow it. To the victor go the spoils. If you want an 800,000-man
0:29
army, you have to win the war. Ukraine has lost the war. Uh and we're going to see the rapid disintegration of the
0:34
Ukrainian military very soon. I mean, desertions are at all-time high. Um and
0:39
and you're going to see units now because I give you an example what's happening. Um there's a a town name
0:45
begins with an M. I can't pronounce it. Minograd or Minovad or something of that nature. There's two brigades. I think
0:50
it's the 25th Brigade and the 38th Marine Brigade. Two of Ukraine's elite uh fighting forces. They're surrounded
0:57
and they've been, you know, there should be about 10,000 guys, but I just told you they don't have any strength anymore. So, each of these brigades is
1:03
down to about 500 men each. That's a thousand men total. These are the best troops in Ukraine and they want to be
1:10
allowed to break out. They they believe they concentrated their strength, they could break out and most of these guys
1:16
could walk, you know, walk home alive. Um, right now they're starving. They can
1:23
only be supplied by drones. The drones either come in with the big uh Baba Yagi or whatever drones come in and
1:31
drop supplies or they come in on unmanned vehicles down. But the Russians have direct uh line-of-sight control of
1:37
lines of communications, are shooting down the drones, blowing up the uh the unmanned vehicles. So these guys are
1:44
starving. No wounded are being evacuated. They're left to die in the basement. That's one of the things that came out of Pokrovsk is the Russians went
1:51
through the basements and the basements were just full of dead guys because the Ukrainian army didn't allow the wounded to be evacuated. They didn't have any
1:57
ability to evacuate them. So, they died. That's what's happening to these wounded. If you get wounded in this
2:02
fight, you're dead. You're not getting out. The other guys are saying, "You got to let us break out." And Zelensky
2:07
apparently um, just last night, said, "No, stay there. Fight and die." That's it.
2:13
Um, if you're going to allow your two best brigades to fight and die, as you see on the battlefield right now, all
2:19
across the battlefield, there's little mini pockets taking place as the Russians outflank and begin to surround
2:24
these units. These units aren't, you know, they're looking there saying government doesn't care about us. What
2:30
are we fighting for? Why are we dying? And you're seeing the whole army is beginning to lose the will to fight, the
2:36
will to resist. They long no longer believe in the cause. And as that happens, they begin to leave their
2:42
positions in order to save their lives or just desert, just leave forever. Um,
2:47
and this is collapse. This is what's happening right now. The Ukrainian army will cease to exist as a functioning
2:54
fighting force in in the very near future. Um, I mean, of any meaningful
2:59
size. And at the end, what's going to happen is the demilitarization will be as Russia has dictated. Russia will
3:05
allow a select few. None of your ASAB dudes, none of your Kraken dudes, none
3:10
of these true Banderas believers, but you know, territorial soldiers who weren't corrupted, who didn't get NATO
3:16
training. I don't think there's going to be any role for anybody with NATO training. Um, 50 to 60,000 people,
3:23
lightly armed for, you know, securing the border and, you know, basically, you
3:29
know, limited self-defense. But the idea of Ukraine having a military that can stand
3:35
toe-to-toe with Russia, nope. Ain't going to happen. And they're not there's not going to be Ukrainian military
3:40
that's going to be the the European army. That's what Zullinsky wants. You know, 600,000 strong Ukrainian, you
3:47
know, mercenary force for Europe. Nope, that's not going to happen either. There will be no, this is demilitarization and
3:54
this is what's going to happen. Remember, remember this 28-point plan isn't really a 28-point plan. it's
4:01
nothing. Um there's certain certain points that are indicators on the strategic direction,
4:09
but the other points are just put in there just to say we we covered that base and I think amnesty is one of
4:15
those. Um again I think it's it falls in the line of what happened last June where you know Vladimir Putin said
4:23
we we can accept the you know communicate updated to represent you know present reality. Um would have been
4:30
a good deal for Ukraine but no they opted out. So now they're they're going down to bring about a piece here.
4:37
There's talk of amnesty. Um you know it is sort of a bone you know what's my future going to be? you know, okay, so
4:44
we the war ends. Man, we did some pretty bad stuff. We're, you know, they're talking about demilitarization, denoxification, corruption. The idea is,
4:51
nope, blanket amnesty. You're all clean. Walk away. That deal is not going to be
4:56
on the table for long. And um when that goes away, the Ukrainians who are corrupt because remember the goal of
5:03
Russia right now is is to the political transformation of Ukraine. That means that traditional, you know, power elite
5:11
structures like the oligarchs, um, and all of the corrupt families, all of the corrupt, uh, relationships, they're
5:18
going to be disintegrated. They're not going to be allowed to stay in place to because from that comes the political
5:25
powers that become the Rada. The Rada is just a a tool of corruption. You elect
5:30
people to a political party, they come in and they they divvy up the Ukrainian economy into their pockets. That's what
5:37
they do. The future of Ukraine cannot be that way. And so Russia will dismantle
5:43
that, put in their own structures. Whether you want to say those are any less corrupt or whatever, I don't know.
5:49
I don't know what they're going to be. And I'm not saying that the Russians are incapable of corruption. What I am
5:54
saying though is that whatever exists in the future will be designed to create a political structure that strengthens
6:01
Russian domination of post-war Ukraine. Um and and in in order to do that you
6:06
have to disintegrate the current the current structures and so you know Russia you can't do that if you give
6:12
everybody amnesty. So I think you know Russia will and then denazification is
6:18
another one. People need to understand that horrific crimes have been committed not by the Russians but by the
6:24
Ukrainians. Horrific crimes. Uh we don't know the truth of what happened in Kursk. I know a little bit of the truth
6:29
because I've talked, but you know, these Ukrainian Nazis went into Kursk in these villages along the border. Uh the the
6:36
the young were able to evacuate, the elderly stayed behind, and they were butchered, raped, butchered, and raped.
6:42
And I'm I'm not just throwing out words. Butchered, literally hacked to death and raped by Ukrainian Nazis, people who
6:50
wore Nazi helmets, had the SS thing and all that. And the Russians know who these people are. um they're not going
6:56
to be allowed to live. I mean, I'm not condoning war crimes. I'm just telling you right now, they
7:02
will not be allowed to live. Um you're not going to see these people captured. Um you're and in in the postconflict,
7:10
they won't be allowed to reside in Ukraine. They will have to seek, you know, u safe haven elsewhere. And I
7:18
think they need to be careful because the part of the normalization of Russia, and I'll get to that in a second, will
7:25
be um Russia will say if if you have a war criminal under your jurisdiction,
7:32
you need to repatriate them to Russia for justice. So, I don't think there's going to be too many places where these
7:38
people can hide. Um normalization, you know, a key aspect of all this, people
7:43
say, well, you know, why isn't Putin going for the kill? I mean, you your
7:48
good friend Gilbert Doc, he's a big fan of the decapitation thing. Oh, Gil knows war. No, he doesn't. That's okay. He
7:54
stole brandy and whiskey and wine. Um, good man. Uh, but um, he wants to decapitate Kiev. And why isn't that? It
8:01
shows Putin's weak. No, it shows Putin's about 400 times smarter than Gilbert Doctorow ever will be because at some
8:08
point in time when this war ends, you can end the war. Let's say, let's say old Gil got a hold of Putin and Putin
8:14
said, "Okay, we're going to decapitate, but kill Zinski." H, that's going to make Europe really want to do business
8:21
with you. make the United States want to do business here, right? Um, and we're gonna go into Odessa because god damn
8:26
it, we can. We're Russia. We're gonna do everything. Odessa, car, take it all. And Europe's going to go, see, we warned
8:33
you about the Russians aggressive. And there may be a peace. Russia can win the war. But then what happens to the
8:39
sanctions? They won't be lifted. What happens to the recognition of Keroson, Zaparisia, Lugansia, Donets? They won't
8:46
be recognized. They'll become little like like the Baltic states were, you know, at the end of World War II where
8:52
we had the map of the Soviet Union, but then we said Lithuania, Lafia, and Estonia aren't part of the Soviet Union. We don't recognize that. And so the map
8:59
would show that Crimea and the four Rosia obelists aren't part of Russia. And it creates the possibility for
9:06
forever war, which is of course the last thing Vladimir Putin wants. So because Vladimir Putin is 400,000 times smarter
9:13
than Gilbert Doo, he's not going to go with decapitation. What he's going to go for is the kind of peace deal that he's
9:20
pressuring to get right now. A peace deal that has the West recognize
9:26
Russia's legal authority over the four territories and Crimea. So there won't
9:32
be messed up maps and sanctions will be lifted and Russia will have the ability
9:39
not only to recover hundreds of billions of dollars of seized assets but engage
9:45
in economic activity with the west unencumbered by sanctions that'll bring in trillions of dollars of economic
9:50
benefit. Ah the genius of Vladimir Putin. You
9:56
know, this this is this is what people need to see right now is that Russia's
10:02
playing the long game. And the long game doesn't involve feel-good moments of raising the flag over Odessa. They're
10:09
going to get Odessa, but it's going to be done through a referendum. They're not going to physically occupy Odessa
10:15
because that creates conditions where it becomes difficult for Europe and the United States to accept, you know,
10:20
Russian sovereignty over these territories. Russia behaves responsibly,
10:26
behaves within the limits that itself has set and then as Russia gains
10:32
political control over Ukraine, if there's a need for referendum, there is. But what happens if Ukraine instead of
10:39
being a hostile state that Russia has to strip away territories, Ukraine instead becomes the third sister, you know, part
10:45
of the union state, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. You know there's a whole element working again the ignorant
10:51
people of the world Gilbert Doctoro they're unaware of this you see because to talk about the union state means that
10:56
you actually have to go talk to the union state and that makes you somehow a tool of Russia to actually speak with
11:01
people who know what they're doing and are doing real things you become a tool of Russia when you do this no you become
11:06
somebody empowered with knowledge and information and you know that there is right now within Russia and Belarus a
11:13
major effort to bring Ukraine in as the third sister of the union state and
11:18
that's the strategic goal and objective of many people in Russia I believe
11:23
including Vladimir Putin although I I'm loa to speak on his behalf um you know but it's a politically sensitive issue
11:30
but this is the direction that the Russians are going with a bigger picture about long-term stability to resolve the
11:36
root causes of the conflict if you go in and decapitate and all that all you do is continue the root causes of the
11:44
conflict Russia wants that over and Donald Trump appears to be willing to facilitate this so that it's truly over.
11:52
When this war ends, it's over, finished, done.
11:57
You know what's so amazing about Europe? They're talking about that Russia wants to attack us. Then they say we have to
12:03
go with a preemptive attack, hybrid attack on Russia. This is this is the
12:10
the first time I see Vladimir Putin coming out and saying something that we haven't heard from him since the war in
12:18
Ukraine started. We we've heard you know these sort of reactions from Medve but I
12:25
have never heard Vlamir Putin responded the way that he's responding to European
12:31
in this video clip said that hundred times. We have no
12:36
plans of fighting against Europe. But if Europe wants to fight and they start
12:42
this fight, then we are ready right now. There is no doubt about this. But the
12:47
only question is if Europe starts the war, unleashes this war because that's
12:54
not Ukraine. With Ukraine, we use some surgical
12:59
means. We are trying to be really careful because you understand why this is not a
13:08
war in the direct sense of the word. And if Europe all of a sudden wants to start
13:14
a war and if it does start a war then
13:21
very rapidly there might be a situation where we have no one to negotiate with.
13:27
…
MY COMMENTS: I agree with Larry Johnson that the key question now is whether Russia in its response to this CIA and MI6 assisted assassination-attempt against Putin will include targeting some of those U.S. and UK personnel inside Ukraine. However, like Scott Ritter, I also believe that Russia is soon going to be greatly increasing its invasion of Ukraine. If Trump won’t accept the conclusion that Russian intelligence came to about the contents of that drone-controller circuit, then Putin will announce that there is nothing further to negotiate about with Trump; and, then, Russia’s escalation of its war in Ukraine will quickly become ferocious, so that its objective will be a total defeat of NATO there. Until now, Putin has been trying to avoid that outcome. But if that will be the outcome, then the termination of Ukraine as it has been ever since Obama grabbed in in 2014 will be coming much faster than it otherwise would. Russia would then be going in for the kill — direct against Obama’s Ukraine, and indirect against the U.S. empire. Trump had okayed an assassination-attempt against Putin. But if Trump now will go public affirming Russian intelligence about that attempt, then that would considerably limit the extent of the ferocity of Russia’s escalation in Ukraine.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
