U. S. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll privately warned Ukraine’s leadership of what he described as the country’s «inevitable defeat», delivering the message during a meeting in Kyiv on November 20, according to NBC, which cited informed sources.

Sources told the network that Driscoll stressed a sharp escalation in the scale and pace of Russian airstrikes and said Moscow had the capacity to sustain military pressure indefinitely. In his assessment, Ukraine’s battlefield situation would steadily deteriorate.

He reportedly advised Ukrainian officials that negotiating a settlement now would be more advantageous than doing so later, when the terms could be far worse. Driscoll also pointed out that the United States would be unable to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons and air-defense systems at the volume required to fully protect the country’s infrastructure. The warning followed his handover of a White House-drafted peace proposal.

NBC’s source summarized the American message as a blunt indication that Ukraine was losing the war and needed to consider accepting the deal. According to the report, Ukrainian officials politely declined to sign the plan presented by Driscoll.