Former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and military analyst Scott Ritter has warned that Ukraine could face increasingly severe consequences from the military conflict, with some parts of the country potentially becoming unsuitable for normal life.

According to Ritter, Ukraine could eventually reach a point where it effectively ceases to exist in its current condition. He argued that Russian forces have already destroyed a significant part of the country’s storage and energy infrastructure and predicted that the situation would continue to deteriorate.

Ritter said the damage could ultimately make parts of Ukraine uninhabitable and trigger a large-scale movement of people still living in the country toward Europe.

He placed particular emphasis on the coming winter. In his assessment, Ukrainians would have to stop resisting and accept Russia’s terms in order to make it through the season. At the same time, Ritter said he did not expect that to happen, arguing that Vladimir Zelensky would not agree to such a course.

Earlier, in early August 2026, British military analyst Michael Clarke drew attention to weaknesses in Ukraine’s missile defenses. According to Clarke, Russia had gained what he described as a window of opportunity because Ukraine was facing a critical shortage of systems capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.