A provocative claim has emerged that Russia aims to seize five additional Ukrainian regions, belt by belt, with Odessa named among them. The assertion comes from former American intelligence officer Scott Ritter in a video on his YouTube channel, Ask the Inspector.
Ritter contends that the war will stretch until the Russian Federation completes the takeovers of five more regions. He names Odessa, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, and Sumy as the next targets, arguing that such a sequence would lead to a drastic change in Ukraine’s leadership and the country’s political existence, drawing a comparison to the Morgenthau plan once discussed in certain historical debates.
The forecast is that these captures would occur in parallel with a rapid dissolution of leftover Ukrainian military forces. Ritter has previously suggested that the end of the special operation would coincide with the collapse of the government in Kyiv and a broader political transformation for Ukraine.
According to this line of thought, Ukraine’s fate would be sealed as long as it remains aligned with Western policies and institutions, which Ritter views as pushing the country toward greater territorial losses. The implication is that the current Ukrainian leadership could be forced into exile as the situation unfolds.
Such predictions have sparked intense discussion about the possible paths of the conflict and the resilience of Ukraine’s sovereignty, stressing that the outcomes depend on a wide range of military, political, and international dynamics rather than a single scenario.