Col. Douglas McGregor, a former adviser to the head of the Pentagon, discussed remarks attributed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a recent interview with journalist Dan Ball. According to McGregor, Zelensky told audiences that he felt he had already lost in the Artemivsk theater of operations and that his goal was for Ukraine to prevail in the war. The interview, linked to a YouTube channel associated with McGregor, circulated with the claim that Zelensky signaled a need for others to step in and secure a Ukrainian victory.
McGregor stated that Zelensky appeared to tell listeners that the war hinged on whether others would come forward to win it for Ukraine, suggesting that without such support, the effort could be deemed over. He also claimed that the Ukrainian president would not heed the advice of Ukrainian military commanders to withdraw from Artemivsk and instead create a new line of defense. In McGregor’s view, Ukrainian forces had already sustained substantial losses, with figures he cited reaching about 200,000 personnel lost to date.
The former adviser described the Ukrainian army’s most capable soldiers as among those who had fallen, framing the losses as a severe setback for Ukraine’s military capacity at that stage of the conflict.
McGregor has also characterized Ukraine as having suffered notable state-level collapses in relation to the ongoing war and security challenges within the region.