U.S. Army secretary warned Ukraine of imminent defeat while pushing initial peace plan [View all]

Source: NBC News

Nov. 25, 2025, 8:34 PM EST


In a meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv last week, U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll delivered a grim assessment. Driscoll told his counterparts their troops faced a dire situation on the battlefield and would suffer an imminent defeat against Russian forces, two sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

The Russians were ramping up the scale and pace of their aerial attacks, and they had the ability to fight on indefinitely, Driscoll told them, according to the sources. The situation for Ukraine would only get worse over time, he continued, and it was better to negotiate a peace settlement now rather than end up in an even weaker position in the future.

And there was more bad news. The U.S. delegation also said America’s defense industry could not keep supplying Ukraine with the weapons and air defenses at the rate needed to protect the country’s infrastructure and population, the sources said.

Driscoll’s message came after he had presented a U.S.-backed peace plan that Kyiv officials viewed as a capitulation to Moscow, according to the two sources. “The message was basically — you are losing,” one of the sources said, “and you need to accept the deal.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/us-army-secretary-warned-ukraine-imminent-defeat-pushing-initial-peace-rcna245704