Scott Ritter: RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE v. U.S. INTELLIGENCE

A lot of people have kind of lost the ball on what's been going on over the last couple of weeks in the Russia Ukraine war. What can you tell us about what's been happening on the war? Has it been mothballled? >> It's a war of attrition that Russia's winning hands down. The Ukrainians are in a bind. As you know, Colonel, war is an extension of politics by other means. That's something we learned from day one. Clausitz and uh those who follow SunSu know that comes that corary exists in the art of war. So, we can't just look at what's happening on the battlefield. the the Russians have been waging what's called a special military operation. Um, which means it's not a war. Uh, but it's a it's a special military operation designed to achieve a specific outcome. That means the Russians are factoring in not just what's happening on the battlefield, but economic issues, political issues, etc. Um, economically, Ukraine is a basket case. Their economy has been destroyed. They they are reliant totally upon hundreds of billions of dollars and euros that are gifted to them every year. If you remove that, their economy collapses. Um, politically, uh, it's a mess. Uh, Zalinsky is in a political crisis right now. You have the British supporting General Zelusni, a former commander. Uh, you have the Americans supporting Budanana, the former head of intelligence, current head of the presidential administration. Uh, as alternatives to Zalinski, uh, which means this man has already lost favor. Corruption is beyond belief in Ukraine. Um, you know, you give you give a dollar, the the dollar's gone. There's just there they just arrested people uh I think going through uh Hungary um with carfuls of cash and gold bars that are being secreted out of Ukraine uh into the bank accounts of Ukrainian politicians who are going to jump ship before they want. The reason why I bring this up is that when we talk about the collapse of a nation just the collapse it's taking on the battlefield. It's the collapse of the society. You need economic collapse and political collapse that leads to societal collapse. When the society collapsed, the society cannot sustain this um this military. And so right now you have a Ukrainian military that has to um basically forcefully uh you know conscript u that means thump them on the head about 10 to 20 to 30,000 guys a month. They're losing all of them. Uh they're losing more power than they can replace. The Russians on the other hand, and I've been there and I know this to be the case. Uh the Russians have volunteers that are well excess of the of the casualties they they've they've suffered. Um don't believe anything you hear about Russian casualties. I will tell you right now that I have it on the highest authority in Russia. I I have a rough idea what the casualties are. It's a little less than 200,000 dead over the course of this conflict. That's a lot, don't get me wrong, but when we say that the Russians have suffered, you know, casualties equivalent to the Ukrainians, they they haven't not even close. Uh it's about a 10 to1 ratio. Um the [clears throat] Russians are winning this war. They have amassed reserves. They'll be able to commit these reserves. They've converted their defense industry into a you know they're pumping out, you know, munitions like you've never seen. munitions pumped out before. We haven't done that. Nobody in Europe has done that. Um and they're they're they're winning the war geopolitically as well. They have more support around the world. You know, when we try to strangle them, we tell India you can't buy Russian oil. India is buying Russian oil. We tell China you shouldn't. China's buying more Russian oil. And now we've given Russia the greatest gift of all by creating an energy crisis in the Middle East that uh has you know we see the Russ Vladimir Putin just saying wow I guess we're just have to go out and get new markets because all of the places that aren't getting Middle Eastern oil now need energy and Russia is now going to find those markets and they're going to get that and we thought we were strangling Russia's ability to sustain this war financially. We've just guaranteed that the Russian budget will be uh immediate. U you know European gas cut off. Um that'll be the death of the European economy. It will collapse. The Indian economyy's under. >> Let me ask you a question there because it seemed to kind of come as a surprise. Uh because Trump has been talking about you know putting more pressure on India to tariffs on them to keep them from buying Russian oil and all this. And then seemingly out of nowhere all of a sudden he goes, "You know what? Okay, that's cool. I think it's for like 30 days, something like that. You can sell some oil to Russia." I mean, that's a because everybody's been focused on the Iran war. There's not been many commentation going on in the United States, but a lot of people are going, "Wait a minute. What? We're supposed to be putting pressure on them." What What do you understand about why that changed? Why Why did he do that? >> Because of reality. Um, first of all, the Indians told him no. I mean, sadly, we have to understand that Donald Trump doesn't tell the truth about anything to anybody. Um, he likes to posture. He likes to believe that I'm in charge. He's in charge. So, he says, "I put pressure on India." Remember he bragged India will not buy Russian oil. I got Modi to say that India won't buy Russian oil. And the Indians were silent. And then later on the parliament came out and said, "Nah, you got to remember we're a democracy. Modi doesn't get to make that call. We get to make that call and we've decided we're buying Russian oil." And so Trump says, "Oh, I've given them a 30-day window to buy Russian oil. That's my decision, not their decision. I did this." No, they're going to do it now. It's going to get even worse because India receives 15 20% of their energy from the Middle East that they're not getting anymore. and they're going to have to go to Russia to get that energy. Um, you know, Japan, our great ally that we we're not allied with anybody. I mean, because we betray everybody, but Japan, if this continues, is going, they get 90% of their energy from the Middle East. Where are they going to replace that? The United States, we don't have excess capacity to do that. It'll come from Russia. They'll reopen Sakalene. Uh, they have no choice. Um, >> by the way, price of oil since this started on the 28th of February has gone from 67 to 91 as of right now. >> I think you're going to see $120 oil if this continues for another week or two. And u, welcome to, you know, everybody who's like me and at the end of each month can pile the amount of dollars you have left over after you pay your bills into a thin little pile like this and maybe take your wife to dinner in a movie. that's gone because um you're gonna have to fill up a gas tank and you're not gonna be able to afford it. And uh >> let me ask you this. Uh by the way, if you if you need to leave, I know we're a little bit over the time. >> No, no, I'm here for you, Colonel. I'm here for you. >> Okay, great. Uh Gary's showing you this headline here. This is Washington Post today is from this morning. Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target US forces. One of the questions people had at the beginning is what is Russia and China going to do uh for Iran? They're not going to get into a fight. You know, they're not going to be a military ally. But the question is, what would they do, if anything at all? And based on this, what do you what can you tell us about what the Russians are going to do? >> Well, we know that the Russians and the Chinese have provided uh Iran with some capabilities. I think primarily in the electronic warfare. Uh Colonel, one day they're going to write a book about this war, and you're going to get the truth from the American operators out there right now. And I'm going to tell you what chapter one's going to say. Uh we were jammed the entire time. U half the weapons we sent in didn't function because they were jammed by advanced electronic warfare capabilities that we didn't know the Iranians had. Um you know all that equipment we provide the Ukrainians highars attackums uh and things uh most of it gets jammed. It just um it doesn't work because the Russians have uh you know figured out how to defeat it. Um, but the other thing too is why are the Iranians able to provide uh, you know, carry out these very effective pinpoint attacks against the United States on a daily basis? They're getting the intelligence from somewhere. It appears now it's from Russia. Now, for all the people out there saying, "My god, how dare the Russians do?" I just want to remind you that on December 28th of last year, while President Trump was on the phone with President Putin uh talking about potential peace, the CIA gave intelligence to Ukraine drone operators and 91 drones with CIA intelligence were launched by Ukraine to strike the building, the residence in Valdai that uh President Putin was ostensively there taking the phone call from Donald Trump. So before you get a little bent out of shape, um you guys know that we tried to kill President Trump using CIA provided data to send Ukrainian drones in there. The CIA has admitted that it gives Ukraine all these >> tried to kill President Trump or or President >> President Putin, I'm sorry. Okay. Trump tried to kill Putin. Um, and and the CIA has admitted through a big New York Times article that was clearly planned in advance that they've enabled the Ukrainians to take out Russia's strategic oil infrastructure, [clears throat] specific places to strike, etc. We've provided the targeting for highars to take out uh Russian command and control center so that you know we kill Russian generals and colonels and we brag about it. Imagine being the family of an American colonel and general, lieutenant colonel or captain or major or sergeant or corporal or PFC who was killed by, you know, uh the the the weapons provided by an enemy that that Russia guided in. I mean, my god, we we lost it when they when we lied about Russia providing a uh uh you know, a um putting a bounty out on American troops. Straight up lie. Straight up lie. But we lost it because three Americans died outside of Bram. We said that happened because Russia paid a a bounty. straight up lie. They died because the Taliban got them. Um, but if if Russia provided the intelligence that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, we'd be freaking out as a nation. And yet, this is what we do. We have provided the intelligence to Ukraine to strike Russian uh soldiers, to strike their command post, to strike their strategic infrastructure. We enabled Ukraine to strike Vince. That was the factory that I worked at as an inspector. Uh the missile factory 1,300 km away from the front line. It's the place where Russia's strategic, you know, intercontinental ballistic missile, submarine launch ballistic missiles are made. It's the most important strategic facility in Russia and we allowed Ukraine to attack it. Um, imagine again if that happened. Imagine if Morton thol went up in uh in Utah. Imagine if uh you know the the the the I don't know what they call it nowadays, but what used to be Magna Utah. If that got blown up um by uh Mexican drones uh enabled by Russian intelligence, we'd be freaking out. Um we'd be sad says strike against our strategic infrastructure. So we've been providing intelligence to Ukraine to facilitate this war, but it's not enough. Um the Russians are winning. The Russians are dominating on the battlefield. I've been there. I've toured the special military operation. Um I have [clears throat] interviewed the officers that fight there. Um you know, and I'm pretty good at interviewing. I'm the guy that got, you know, they uncovered all the Iraqi lies over the course of seven years, uh, by sitting down and interrogating them. I'm very good at what I do. Very good at what I do. And when so when I sit down with Russians, um, I can tell when I'm having blow smoke blown at me. I can tell when they're telling the truth. Plus, I don't accept anything at face value. I verify everything. >> And what I'm telling you right now is that sitting down with the Russian commanders, they are very honest. They are they, first of all, they all admit how hard this war is. When have you seen a lying soldier come into you? You know how ah it was easy. We kicked their butts. We're you know they they didn't do. [clears throat] Okay. Why do you have an artificial leg? But um you know the Russians are just honest. This is the hardest thing they've ever done. They say the Ukrainians just fight like like wild animals. They they they don't surrender. They fight hard. Um their tactics are good. Uh the equipment's good. I mean Aialadinov, the man who gave me that flag, the commander of the occupied special forces talks about US equipment. He said, "When you when when the Ukrainian army went into Kursk in August of 2024, they came in with the best uh command and control equipment that NATO had. New computers linked to satellites, providing AI assisted maneuvering, etc." He says, "Pretty, we don't have that. You guys did a great job. That's that's really good stuff." Then we figured out how to beat you. And they they do that. They they're just honest. They are honest about their casualties. They're honest about their shortcomings. Um, and I have no reason to doubt that everything I was told by the Russians is the truth because it's it's hard truth. It's not. When people are lying to you, they're trying to, you know, create a a certain impression. These guys are telling the hard truth, which means it leaves you with some questions about, well, why do you continue to do it that way? If you're going to lie to me, sell it so that everything's perfect and it's all roses. Don't don't tell me a truth that is a hard truth that causes me to ask follow-on questions that are difficult to answer. The Russians tell the hard truth. This is a hard >> Let me ask you a question. I've got and tell me if this has ever come up in your conversations. There is a line of thinking in the United States uh at some of the highest levels in our government. I'll say in some of the context that I have is that uh yes, Russia has all these advantages. They have the the manpower. They have the industrial capacity. Uh but they're they're just their their soldiers just aren't that good. And you can tell that because in four years they've still hardly been able to go anywhere. or in the last two years, they haven't gone very much farther because they can't. That's as fast as they can go. Uh and that shows that they're really just not that good against this little tiny uh Ukraine soldiers. Um what do you say to that? Is this as fast as they can go or is it a conscious decision? And if it is a conscious decision, why wouldn't they go faster? >> Oh, it's it's it's a conscious decision. Um first of all, people need to understand that Ukraine has been digging into this territory since 2014. um especially in uh Donetsk in the Donbas um the defenses they have prepared are extensive defenses reinforced defenses um they've been preparing for this for a long time so it's like fighting a fortified position and Colonel I know you know this and maybe there's some people in your audience that know this but um you know man taking [clears throat] on a fortified position is the hardest thing you can imagine in ground combat >> and you're going to get chewed up. Um, you know, we talk about 3 to one advantage, but a fortified position, you need about 5 to one advantage because there's just a lot more complexity involved in the assault. Um, and yet the Russians went into this conflict, you know, with little around 200,000 troops going up against the Ukrainian military that had 700 to 900,000 troops. People need to understand that when this war started, the Ukrainians had 700 to 900,000 troops, many of whom were trained by the United States. Uh since 2015, the United States and NATO have been training Ukrainian forces in western Ukraine, one battalion, 500 troops every 55 days. And we admit to go over to the Donbas so they could fight Russians and kill Russians. And we were proud of that. We openly bragged about how we're training Ukrainians to fight and kill Russians. Um our special operations forces were working with Ukrainians to teach them, you know, deep reconnaissance, to teach them direct action, uh covert action, etc. Um we've been helping Ukrainians for this fight for some time now. So the Russians come in and um they were hoping they could get the Ukrainians to resolve this thing through negotiation. The purpose of the special operation was to get the Ukrainians to the negotiating table. Less than a week after the war started, Ukraine was at the negotiating table. Three rounds of negotiation go two rounds in the stumble and by the end of March we had a peace plan that was going to bring peace and prosperity and Boris Johnson went in and killed it and now we have a war that's dragged on. So the Russians have been adopting this. The Russians have to had to build up forces 300,000 partial mobilization in uh September of 2022. Um since then they've been relying upon um you know the uh contract soldiers, volunteers um to to advance rapidly you need that 3 to 5 to one advantage and Russia isn't mobilized to do that. Russia continued to this day Ukraine has more manpower than Russia. Russia's not in the business of taking territory quickly. Russia's gone into the business of a war of attrition. Yeah, he's going to Yeah, but that's again because of the expansion of NATO. People have to understand that when you bring in Sweden and Finland and you extend the uh the Russian front that doesn't Russia has to respond and they they put a 70,000 >> course. They're at 1.5 right now, right? So that's a 900,000 increase. >> Yep. They started at uh 900,000. Um and then after this they went to 1.5. Uh and so while they're reinforcing this war, uh they're also expanding their military. They have the defense industrial capacity to do that. People don't ever reflect on that. You know, that in addition to supplying a war, they're building an army that's bigger than our army. They they built it by 600,000 and now they've gone up by an additional um 800,000. Uh and and we we you know, I don't want to get into it, but we >> we just can't do it. The point is the Russians are very good at what they do. But here's the other factor that came in right about the time that the Russians solved the tactical problem. Um meaning for instance look at the summer 2023 counter offensive in Roatino. Um big NATO offensive. Um Ukraine was supposed to roll through and the Russians just wiped it out because they brought a general um Romanov. General Romanov was the deputy commander of 58th Army operating in the Zaparisia area. was taken out, sent to the Russian general staff academy and told to rewrite Russian defensive doctrine based upon what you've seen. And he rewrote it, came up with a manual, and then they said, "Now take your manual back to Zaparisia and build your defenses." And he did. And he built the defenses using new doctrine that crushed this NATO offensive. Crushed it absolute. Right about that time, the Russians were starting to get breakthroughs. Uh Vagner and the paratroopers were breaking through at Bakmoot and things look good. Enter the drone. And this is the thing that people I see one in your in in on your shelf back there. Drones have changed everything. Drone warfare is just changed this. And the Ukrainians were better than the Russians at drone war. I know this because I've spoken to Russian drone commanders who still today say there are certain things the Ukrainians do better than we do. Um they're just straight up honest. These people are honest. But the drones changed everything because drones you you you had to change the entire way you fought business. And um initially the drones caused Russian casualties because they didn't know how to deal with it. Russia has been adapting to this. They now have a drone hunter unit called Rubicon. Uh when the Ukrainians come in with their reinforced drone units, Rubicon is deployed. And Rubicon's job is to kill Ukrainian drone operators. And they do it with a vengeance. The Russians are dominating the drone battlefield, but it's still you can't move. When to get to the front line, you have to start low crawling about 10 kilometers out because you have drones out there looking for you. And when you get to the front line, you're not running around. You don't get to have your command post. I mean, anything I learned as a Marine, I'd be dead because if I tried to operate that, put my company online, maneuver, we'd all die because of drones. >> They they they have tens of thousands of drones they can expend a day as rounds of ammunition. >> And they're they they can hunt down individuals. So, you have to build defensive capability. You have to jam them. You have to uh learn how to shoot them down. And the Russians are doing a very very good job. But this means that the pace of advancing is is is is very slow. The Russians are advancing at extraordinarily strong pace right now. But it is slowed down by drones because if you outrun, you have to put a drone barrier on the battlefield, have drone dominance in order to advance. If you try to advance without drone dominance, you die. And so the Russians have to come in and win the drone war. They have to win it 20 kilometers deep. And then they can begin to advance until which time the Ukrainians reinforce with drones and now they've pushed back the the line of contact over the Russian line. The Russians have to go down. You thin out your line because you have to reduce the number of targets and then you have to come back in with drones and continue to fight again. This is a kind of war that we in the west don't understand. We have no clue about what's going on. And the operation hedgehog 2025, the most recent NATO war games that took place I think in Estonia. They brought in a small number of Ukrainian drone operators and they went up against the NATO armor brigade and they killed it. That's what's going to happen to NATO. That's what's going to happen to the United States if we go to war against Russia. They will kill every single one of us because we don't know how to do drone warfare today. We're going to come in and think we can put an armored battalion online and do this and do that and do the bring the artillery in and mass fires. We'll lose everything because we don't know how to fight this war. The Russians are masters of drone warfare. So are the Ukrainians. But this is why the the advance is so slow because it's a different kind of war. >> You know, I had uh I had seen some uh uh comments from the Ukraine side, eight months ago when the US armor community came out with the new tactical manual for the armor platoon and and it it was of course changed to reflect the presence of drones or whatever. And the Ukrainian, not the Russian, the Ukrainian vet veterans, mocked it and laughed at it and said, "Are you kidding? That's your change?" Because that you wouldn't last a week on the front line here if you use those tactics. You'd be wiped out. You have to do it radically different. And and that's a problem that I have and I'm real concerned about as a guy. You see, I was in the first armored division. I was a the second in command of an armored cab squadron. And I can I I totally validate what you just said. If I used the tactics I did in 2007 when I was the in that unit, I I mean we we'd get wiped out just like the Ukrainian side did in June 2023 because we'd have been using the same tactics. And now it looks like that we've we've recognized that there's a change, but we've changed about this much when we needed to change about this much. And that worries me. I was I was I was in Russia last fall and um talking to [cough] commander of a drone unit and um you know people need to understand when I go to Russia I defend America like you wouldn't believe. I mean I I am fighting tooth and nail to defend the United States. I don't badmouth you know as an American citizen in the United States. I have a first amendment right to say anything I want and I have a duty and responsibility as a citizen to call out my government when they're doing things bad. But I don't criticize my government overseas. That's not my place. Um, and so it's sometimes hard to have conversations because these guys are like pointing things out that it's it's hard to defend. But they were talking about the US Army uh in Europe has a drone school now and they published some videos and um there's a video of this soldier getting his drone. and he's bragging about how he's going to take a hand grenade and he's going to put it under the drone and now the drones are going to fly out over the target and they're going to drop their grenade down and they hit it and they're like, "Yeah, we're masters." Guys do know that that's like the very first thing they did when they started using drones back in 2022, 2023 was a grenade drop. But today, you don't get to drop grenades unless you have total control of the side because you'll be shot down, you'll be jammed, whatever. That tactic won't work. So we are literally adopting drone tactics and trying to learn drone tactics that won't work on the battlefield. If you look at some of the modern battlefields right now that go to Picros where there was heavy fighting uh the fields of a Picrosk are covered with fiber optic lines covered literally covered um it's like woven in that. Think about it each one of those lines is a single drone fiber optic which means it can't be jammed. So they're they're flying at you with a fiber optic drone that can't be jammed. Once they lock in on you, unless you can shoot it down, you're going to get hit. And that field is covered with them going both ways. That tells you the reality of drone warfare today. We're not even close. Colonel, you know this. And I know this. We try and get a Lance Corporal to be issued a a you know, $2,500 piece of equipment. And uh and he's like, "I don't want this. I don't want to sign for this." And then tell them that you you have permission to crash it. And they're going to be like, "No. Uh, my paycheck isn't good enough. I can't. In order to train on drone, modern drone warfare, you have to have a budget that allows you to buy dozens of expensive drones so that your Marines and soldiers can crash them, can train to do it, right? And and there could be no there could be no consequence for crashing them. If they take it off and it crashes into a tree, you can't say, "That's a $2,000 piece of equipment, soldier." No. Because in drone warfare, you're going to be literally flying these things nonstop and they're expendable rounds of ammunition. We had people get in trouble in Afghanistan. There it is. There's the there's the fiber in Afghanistan for flying javelins at the wrong target because javelins are expensive and you need to pick drones that you just you you just fire them, you fly them, you crash them, you do whatever. They're expendable rounds of ammunition and they are literally using tens of thousands of them a day on a spec on a on a particular part of the battlefield. It's a whole new way of war that we in the west have no understanding of. >> 100% agree with you and uh I fear that one day we'll find out the hard way. But listen, we'll leave it there for now. >> Just so you know, Colonel, sorry to interrupt. Uh today the report came out, the Iranians are starting to use FPV drones. This is the very drone weapon we The Iranians are starting to employ FPV drones against uh you know um American targets and against for instance the Kurds. The Kurds now that the CIA is trying to get them to advance. The Iranians are using FPV drones to addict them up to 15 20 kilometers into their rear. So if we ever did send ground troops into Iran, the Iranians have mastered drone warfare. We have >> Okay. And that's actually what I was going to tell you about because I've just gotten a note from a friend uh [clears throat] somebody that you probably know well. I've gotten two things. One is that there was an alert that the 82nd Airborne Division cancelled suddenly an exercise to go back for potential deployment somewhere. Then just now uh I received and this is from the stars and stripes uh media service says the armed services blood program is asking Kaiser and that's in Germany military community to step up and donate ahead of possible increased demand. This is in the Germany. So I don't know if those things are connected or not or if there's just some reason they think that there's going to be a lot of civilian need for blood all of a sudden but there are some actions that seem to be in line with somebody thinking they're going to do something on the ground. God help us if anybody's even thinking about that especially and it looks to me like and and we'll end with this. It looks to me like we had a plan A that we're going to come in and kill the Ayatollah that they were going to collapse fall down and we would get some kind of Maduro like deal to where it was over nice and clean in a week and out or a few days and now that it hasn't they've solidified and and their resistance has hardened and now it looks like we're scrambling for something different to do. And God help us. Do you think that anybody's actually thinking about if the Kurds can't do it, maybe we can send in some of our troops? What do you think about that? >> Well, first of all, I don't think there I still have respect for the politicized generals who who are in charge of our military today. They've been politicized and that's just a sin. But I still believe that they're professional. And so I don't believe there's anybody uh in the US military who thinks putting the 82nd Airborne anywhere on the ground in this conflict would be a good idea. Uh anywhere because they can't. the 82nd Airborne cannot fight this fight. They'll all die. What they can do though is reinforce embassies. Um and so we we know from the past that the 82nd Airborne and the Marines were called upon to reinforce the Green Zone. The Green Zone is under threat today. We may need the 82nd Airborne to be a rapid deployment force because we have American forces in Iraq that are increasingly under uh under risk. Um, and so, you know, we we have to be careful where we might find Bill um, you know, in risk of being overrun. Maybe the 82nd's going to go to reinforce Bill. Uh, we're building up um, you know, zones of operation in Western Iraq that could potentially be used for special operations uh, incursions into um into the Middle East. I hate to speculate about this kind of stuff because >> Yeah. Yeah. That's all we can do right now. But it is >> No, but I mean it's just because if they're doing it, then nobody should be talking about it. But unfortunately, there's a lot of media reports about how they went out there to do something. The Iraqis found them and there was a firefight and all that. Um, but the 82nd Airborne might be needed to secure a Ford operating base. >> Yeah. >> So, I think that's what the 82nd's there to do. I think it's being called upon to come in as emergency reinforcement for um for uh embassies, for consulates, for uh already deployed American forces in Iraq and maybe for the creation to the secure of new Ford operating bases for other American forces who may or may not be eventually involved in this fight. >> Well, we'll have to wait and see on that like all these other things, but uh we are very grateful for you your insight on all these issues today. uh super interesting and uh we look forward to having you back real soon actually. >> Well, thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure to do finally be on your show. >> Thanks a lot, Scott. We appreciate you a lot and we appreciate you guys too. Be sure and like and subscribe if you haven't done that. By the way, for any of our new viewers here, uh we're also on podcast. We are on uh Spotify podcast, Apple Podcast, podcast addict. Just type in Daniel Davis Deep Dive. You'll find us there. We're on uh also uh on Substack. 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** NEW MERCH ** Jackets & Sweatshirts, Thermo Mugs!! Daniel Davis Deep Dive Merch: Etsy store https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielDavisDeepDive?ref=seller-platform-mcnav Scott Ritter argues that Ukraine is experiencing a broader national collapse—not just militarily, but politically, economically, and socially. They claim President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces a political crisis with rival figures allegedly backed by Western powers, while corruption among Ukrainian elites is described as widespread. On the battlefield, the speaker says Ukraine is struggling to replace heavy losses and must rely on forced conscription, while Russia supposedly has more volunteers than casualties. They claim Russian casualties are under 200,000 and argue that Russia holds major advantages in manpower, reserves, and defense production. Geopolitically, the speaker contends that sanctions have failed to isolate Russia. Countries like India and China continue buying Russian oil, and disruptions in Middle Eastern energy supplies are expected to increase global demand for Russian energy. Rising oil prices could also trigger economic strain globally. The discussion then shifts to the Russia–Iran–U.S. dynamic, claiming Russia may be providing intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities to Iran. The speaker argues this mirrors what the United States has done for Ukraine—providing intelligence for strikes against Russian targets. Finally, the speaker concludes that Russia currently holds the strategic advantage in the war, describing Russian commanders as candid about the difficulty of the conflict while still confident they are winning. Key themes: Alleged political instability and corruption in Ukraine Claims of Russian military and industrial advantages Energy geopolitics and global oil market impacts Intelligence support between major powers in proxy conflicts The argument that Russia currently has the strategic upper hand in the war