Is Russia finally pushing for a decisive victory in Ukraine? 🇷🇺💥 In this eye-opening Deep Dive, Lt. Col Daniel Davis shares exclusive insights into the latest developments on the battlefield and behind the scenes. As the war reaches a critical point, Russia seems to be tightening its grip, signaling a possible endgame strategy 🎯.
With the West's support shifting, and Ukraine struggling under pressure, what’s next? Is peace even on the table—or is total military dominance the goal? Get the full strategic breakdown, geopolitical implications, and military realities from one of the most respected defense analysts in the U.S. 🇺🇸🧠
📌 Stay informed. Stay ahead. Watch till the end for expert insights you won’t hear on mainstream news 🧩
00:00Even without talking to any Russians or listening to anything they say, just looking at what they're doing on the battlefield, they are trying to win the war.
00:07It's not hard to see.
00:08They are taking actions at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels to win the conflict.
00:14And in every domain, they are succeeding.
00:17And all the inputs that they have gives every indication that they're going to continue to.
00:21The New York Times was correct in that clip I showed you a second ago where they said it's a war of attrition, and that's exactly what Russia is doing.
00:29They are fighting and grinding down the cumulative total of everything that the Ukraine side is doing at the diplomatic level, at the production level, economic level, and at the manpower level.
00:44Everything you want to look at is an attrition war, and Russia is succeedingly grinding down the Ukraine side.
00:50So there shouldn't be any confusion, but there is, and there remains to be so.
00:55And unfortunately, that extends to the highest levels of the U.S. government.
00:59Yesterday, at a press briefing, Caroline Leavitt was asked, where is President Trump on this right now?
01:05President Trump said that he needed one and a half to two weeks to determine whether or not he believed Vladimir Putin wanted peace.
01:13He has been in office now for four months.
01:16What does he believe is going to happen in the next one and a half to two weeks that would change his opinion?
01:20Well, it is my understanding, and it is our hope, that Russia and Ukraine will engage in direct talks and negotiations next week in Istanbul.
01:29And we believe that meeting is going to take place.
01:31And that is a meeting the President encouraged and urged for these two sides to come together and negotiate directly.
01:37And the President has been clear from the very beginning of this conflict that he wants to see this conflict solved on the negotiating table, not on the battlefield.
01:44And he has told that to both leaders, again, both publicly and privately.
01:48So hopefully next week it will move the ball forward.
01:51Is the United States going to participate in those conversations?
01:53I will.
01:54We will let you know if the President plans to send a representative.
01:58I am not tracking that at this time.
01:59Okay, that last part was kind of important there, where, you know, she reiterated, and that reporter asked, we showed you, I think, yesterday or the day before, that Trump had said, hey, within two weeks, we're going to know if I'm being tapped along or if not, and then we may take a different course of action.
02:16So the question was, what's going to happen in those two weeks?
02:19Well, now that we see that the next level of talks is at least scheduled, and by the way, Sergei Lavrov, as you'll see in just a second here, said that they're preparing to go on June 2nd, which is Monday.
02:30As of airtime today, the Ukraine side has not agreed to do that yet.
02:35So we don't know if Zelensky is even going to send any delegations this time.
02:39I think that he's probably trying to calculate inside whether that's going to gain him or lose in him anything in his images in the West.
02:46I think that he probably has to go, because if he doesn't, I think that's going to make it easier for Trump to say, okay, we're going to walk.
02:54If you're not even trying to talk, because you heard Caroline Levitt say he put his stamp of approval on that meeting, saying, yes, let's get together and talk, and I've encouraged both sides privately and publicly.
03:04So if Zelensky doesn't go, that's not going to play well.
03:07So I imagine that he'll probably end up going.
03:10But who's not going is us, because you heard Caroline Levitt there ask, what about the U.S. participation?
03:17She said, we don't have any plans to go at this time.
03:20So this is direct between them.
03:22So this could indicate that the U.S. is now willing to actually do what Trump has threatened to do many times, which is to walk.
03:30And you may recall, at least for a while, I guess it was about a month ago, you had Tammy Bruce, the spokeswoman for the State Department, said, we're out of the mediating business.
03:40It's now between them.
03:42And, of course, that wasn't the case, because then we did participate in the Istanbul meetings, the first ones that happened after that.
03:48But now it appears that we're not going to participate here, leaving it up to the two parties.
03:53Now, as for the Russian side, let's look at that first.
03:56Sergei Lavrov was talking about this meeting and what the intent of the meeting is supposed to be for.
04:03Then, of course, in Istanbul, it was supposed to be said, that Moscow and Kyiv have prepared documents,
04:10and, of course, the other parties to achieve sustainable regulation.
04:17The Russian side, as we discussed, operatively worked out the corresponding memorandum,
04:23which is able to implement our memorandum on all aspects of the safe andill struggle of the case of the first-church crisis.
04:30Our delegations, along with Vladimir Medin, are ready to introduce this memorandum to Ukraine
04:36Ukraine, and give the necessary explanation during the second round of the renewed direct
04:42negotiations in Istanbul on the next Monday, June 2nd.
05:06It's not hard to figure out what's going to be in that memorandum.
05:09It's the administrative borders of all four of the territories, which means the withdrawal
05:15of the Ukraine armed forces from a lot of territory that they currently control.
05:20You know, I've shown you this clip there a lot, or the quote from the news that Zelensky
05:26said, I'm not going to withdraw from anything.
05:28So already it's dead on arrival, even if the two sides do go.
05:32We already know that they're intractable on that, but that's the least of them probably
05:35because there's also demilitarization, denosification, declaration from NATO that they will never
05:41accept Ukraine into it, et cetera, and then some other things beyond that.
05:46But those are the big ones there.
05:48So we're sure that that's going to be in the Russian memorandum that's going to be delivered
05:52to the Ukraine on Monday if that event comes off.
05:56On the Ukraine side, however, there may be even more distance between the two sides.
06:02As you still see Zelensky, who said this yesterday.
06:05Russia is a lot of war and does everything, just to destroy countries, which are still trying to influence
06:14on Moscow, a word, not a push.
06:18The words with Moscow do not work.
06:21Even the so-called memorandum, which they promised, and so on, for more than a week,
06:29they were prepared to do it, but they still don't see it.
06:33Ukraine did not give it, our partners did not give it, even Turkey as a country as a country,
06:39which took the first meeting, too, did not give it a new agenda.
06:46And although they promised absolutely counterfeit, and first of all, they promised this to the United States,
06:55President Trump, a complete Russian fraud.
07:00All they do, so that the meetings were empty.
07:05This is another reason, so that there were sufficient sanctions, sufficient pressure.
07:11So if you weren't able to read those letters, I know they're kind of small, especially on a phone screen.
07:17Generally, what he said, these talks are going to be meaningless anyway.
07:21We need to put more pressure on the Russian side and force them into negotiation,
07:27into just and lasting peace and all this stuff he says a lot.
07:30It's funny, there's one thing in there he said that I think is accurate.
07:33He said the Russians don't respond to words.
07:36He may have had a different meaning, but it's pretty clear the Russians don't respond to words.
07:41And especially when your words aren't matched up by any kind of reality on the battlefield.
07:46And so these threats of sanctions, these coercive threats of all kinds of things from the West that we're going to harm you, etc.
07:54Maybe use long range missiles, all those kind of things.
07:57Russia is just looking at the ground and going, and your point would be what?
08:01All of this leads to some confusion and something that I have to admit, I have a little confusion here, too.
08:07My confusion centers, though, around how can we not be clear, crystal clear what the Russians are doing, what their intent are.
08:18A lot of the confusion centers around people saying, you know, how can they not do this 30-day ceasefire?
08:25You can't have a negotiated end if you don't first have a ceasefire.
08:28That's obvious.
08:29It's not obvious.
08:30In fact, it's not even common that much in the world.
08:33You look at, especially when things have happened before with the First World War, how that came to a negotiated settlement.
08:41The Korean War, especially, that thing took like a year and a half, if I'm not mistaken, of negotiations while the fighting was going on the whole time.
08:49And then you look at the Second World War.
08:51Now, that was a little different because the Russian, the Soviet side and the, you know, the allied United States in the West cumulatively looked for unconditional surrender.
09:02Then they said they reached a point where they said, all right, no more negotiations.
09:06Now we're just going to fight until you lose.
09:08And so that's exactly what happened.
09:10So there wasn't any real negotiation there.
09:12The fighting continued on until the German side lost the ability to continue to wage war.
09:19Of course, Hitler committed suicide and all that.
09:21So there are multiple ways that conflicts come to an end.
09:25And if you think that because we have decided that you have to stop talking first or you have to stop fighting first and then have a negotiated settlement, that doesn't mean the other side is going to play along with that, especially when it's not in their view.
09:38But going back to that New York Times piece before, they have a different kind of confusion.
09:42And again, if you could toss that one up there, the New York Times itself is confusing and some of the experts that they talk about is unclear.
09:51The New York Times writes, it is unclear what role the Kremlin expects the unfolding offensive to play in the broader complex diplomatic maneuvers over ending the war.
09:59Some Western analysts say that Mr.
10:01Putin may be using the dry weather season most conducive for offensive operations to maximize his negotiating power before giving more weight to peace talks later this year.
10:10OK, look, folks, I don't understand how you're confused on this.
10:14They're not pushing to negotiate, get a better negotiating position.
10:17They already have it.
10:19They already have the dominant position.
10:22Why did they need to fight a little bit more so that they can get a better dominant position?
10:27I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
10:29And it's just like we don't listen to anything the Russian side has been saying.
10:33I mean, how many soundbites have I put in over the last just four months from Vladimir Putin, from Lavrov himself or showed things from Peskov?
10:47They've all been saying the same things here.
10:50We had on our show Ambassador Polyansky, the deputy UN ambassador for the Russians in New York.
10:55And he was pretty clear on that we will either win with negotiations or we will keep fighting.
11:02So he still used kind of diplomatic language.
11:04Now, here's something that happened yesterday at the United Nations Security Council.
11:09There were speeches made by the U.S. ambassador who was at that time that I guess the acting is I think his name is Kelly, Ambassador Kelly.
11:18And then he's going to be followed by the U.S., the Russian ambassador, Nabinzia.
11:24Now, first of all, note what the American guy is going to say here, because he's going to kind of repeat something that the that the White House has been saying, but kind of in a genteel language.
11:37The United States has worked tirelessly with both sides, seeking a path to peace.
11:44We want an end to this war.
11:47As the first step on that path to peace, the United States put forward a proposal for an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive ceasefire.
11:56Ukraine unequivocally accepted, pending Russia's agreement to do the same.
12:02Since then, we have been urging Russia to accept a ceasefire.
12:07Following President Trump's May 21 call with President, with Russian President Putin, the Russian Federation is expected to provide a term sheet broadly outlining its vision for a ceasefire.
12:20We will judge Russia's seriousness towards ending the war, not only by the contents of that term sheet, but more importantly, by Russia's actions.
12:29If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict.
12:40To be clear in doing so, we would not be abandoning our principles or our friends.
12:46Rather, we would be recognizing Russia's refusal to work with us toward a desirable outcome.
12:53Desirable from whose perspective?
12:59I get it.
13:00We want the desirable outcome for us is to negotiate a settlement where Russia just stops where they are and doesn't go any further and doesn't demand anything more.
13:08Leaves Ukraine intact, leaves the Zelensky regime intact, allows them to have negotiations, allows them to have bilateral relations, et cetera, and just keep all that open.
13:18I get it.
13:19I get that's what you would want.
13:21But listen, would you say that kind of thing on the floor of the United Nations Security Council, that if we don't get the desired end we want, then we will walk away and then just say, this is not us abandoning our friends or anybody else.
13:33It's just us walking away and leaving them to their own fate.
13:37I mean, it kind of is.
13:39I mean, if we're just being honest.
13:40Now, that's what I recommend.
13:42I've been saying it for months.
13:44That's exactly what we should do to say, you guys figure this out because no one's listening to us anyway.
13:49No, I'm talking about the Western side, not even talking about Russia at this point.
13:53Nobody, neither anybody in Kiev nor Brussels or other other capitals in Europe seem to be listening to anything that we say.
13:59They seem, I mean, you saw Zelensky there in that clip I just played from yesterday.
14:04He hasn't changed anything.
14:06He still doesn't want to have a negotiated settlement.
14:09He doesn't want to give up anything.
14:11He doesn't want to listen to anything.
14:12The Russians say he just wants to keep fighting.
14:14And then he just wants the West to keep doing more, more sanctions, more air defense missiles, more, more artillery pieces, everything.
14:21I mean, he just wants more of all this stuff.
14:23It just doesn't want anything around diplomacy.
14:26So I told you about Ambassador Pollyonsky that we interviewed last month in what he said last night.
14:34And I mentioned this at the outset of the show last last night at the United Nations Security Council.
14:39The Russian ambassador followed up the the American statement there with something that could not be any more crystal clear and explicit.
14:48And why this is not on this morning's New York Times, since the speech was made in New York, I don't know.
14:55But I haven't even seen.
14:56Maybe it's just been mentioned somewhere.
14:57But this should be a bombshell because he lays out in the most explicit terms available exactly what Russia's plan is.
15:06No new anti-Russian sanctions nor deliveries of weapons to Ukraine or any other hostile steps vis-à-vis Russia will be able to prevent the inevitable military defeat of the Zelensky regime.
15:20The ball is in Ukraine's court, either talks followed by peace or the unavoidable defeat of Ukraine on the battlefield with different conditions for the conflict's end.
15:33And there you have it explicitly.
15:37You either come to the negotiating table and get an ugly deal and we end the fighting today or we go into the inevitable military defeat.
15:47That is point blank claimed by the Russian side.
15:50And why in the world?
15:51That's not on every headline in the Western world.
