Scott Ritter: Why Russia Will Invade Europe.

16 May 2026, posted by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

First, here is the relevant history showing that The West (the U.S. empire) lies when it says that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 was “unprovoked” and “started the war in Ukraine.” As you can see there, Barack Obama started this war by a U.S. coup in February 2014, no ‘democratic revolution’ occurred there at all; that U.S. coup ENDED Ukraine’s democracy and started the civil war there, to which Russia finally reacted by invading Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The aggressor in this war, which is America’s proxy-war to ultimately capture Russia — this aggressor against Russia is the U.S. regime, NOT the Russian Government against either America or its empire. The billionaires-controlled Governments and media throughout The West (the U.S. empire) lie constantly about it. And Scott Ritter now explains why this war that Obama started will now engulf America’s European colonies (‘allies’) too. America’s European stooges will now come tumbling down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk9__tm2Toc

“Scott Ritter: Russia will Soon Expand War by Striking EUROPE”

15 May 2026, Daniel Davis / Deep Dive

00:00

DANIEL DAVIS: There are those in the United States,

00:01

and I’ve talked to a number of them here

00:03

recently, that actually don’t pay much

00:05

attention to what’s going on in the

00:06

Russia-Ukraine war because they say,

00:08

“It’s a stalemate. The line hasn’t

00:09

hardly moved in the last 2 and 1/2, 3

00:11

years, cuz that’s all Russia can do.

00:13

They haven’t done any more of that

00:14

because they can’t do any more of that.”

00:15

So, you’re saying that that is a

00:17

misreading of the situation. What is,

00:20

theoretically could trigger this next

00:22

strike of something that goes into a

00:24

Western country?

00:25

SCOTT RITTER: It’s already triggered. The decisions

00:27

have been made. So, it’s now

00:28

just a question of timing. Meaning, you

00:30

know, what the Russians are looking at

00:31

now is when they initiate this action,

00:34

and I believe they will initiate this

00:35

action, are they prepared for the

00:38

follow-up? Um you know, let me put some

00:41

other things in perspective, too. When

00:43

um

00:44

when the conflict started, the size of

00:45

the Russian military was 900,000 men.

00:48

Sometime in 2023, 2020 2023, Russia

00:52

increased the size of the military to

00:54

1.6 million. Um

00:56

now, that’s, you know, 700,000.

00:59

Um so, people, you know, are talking

01:00

about Russian defense industry. You

01:02

know, the Russians aren’t just building

01:03

weapons for the war, which is a war of

01:06

attrition, chewing through material, but

01:07

they’re doing it to you build build up a

01:11

700,000-man

01:13

expansion of the military. Um

01:17

I I That’s why I laugh when the Germans

01:18

are like, “We’re going to build a

01:19

300,000-man army.”

01:20

Boy, the Russians are really scared

01:22

about that. But then the Russians have

01:23

now gone even further, 2.2 million. Now,

01:26

you know this, Colonel, when you when

01:27

when you have a soldier, that soldier

01:29

needs infrastructure. That soldier needs

01:30

equipment. Uh you need not just a basic

01:33

loadout, you need all the ammunition

01:34

backed up to to support any contingency.

01:37

Russia has been building this. People

01:39

are so ignorant about Russia right now

01:41

because they focus on what’s going on in

01:42

the special military operation, not

01:44

understanding that right across from the

01:46

Finnish border in the St. Petersburg

01:47

Military District, which is new, there’s

01:49

a 70,000-strong

01:51

Russian Army Corps that has been built

01:53

from scratch, that is fully equipped and

01:56

fully prepared to wage war against NATO.

01:58

NATO’s not prepared to do that. Uh the

02:00

Russians have built up additional

02:01

forces. The Russians have been expanding

02:03

their military and building the

02:05

logistical sustainability for this

02:07

military while they’re fighting this

02:09

major war. Uh so the Russians have

02:11

defeated us hands down in the defense

02:13

industry stand- standpoint. So Russia’s

02:15

ready, but you know, there are economic

02:17

considerations. You don’t Again,

02:19

Vladimir Putin is a strategic thinker.

02:21

You don’t initiate something until you

02:23

have made sure that all your ducks are

02:25

in order. So when the Russians get all

02:26

their ducks in order and there are a lot

02:28

of meetings taking place in Russia right

02:29

now, uh Russia will do what it needs to

02:31

do unless there is a change of behavior

02:34

on the part of Europe. Um

02:36

and there, you know, the one thing that

02:37

the Russians recognize is that none of

02:39

the leaders who today are articulating

02:41

this aggressive stance have a political

02:43

future. Uh Merz is is is not going to

02:46

win the next parliamentarian election.

02:48

Uh Macron is on his way out in 2027,

02:51

could leave sooner. Um you know, and um

02:55

Keir Starmer is a joke. Uh his party

02:57

just collapsed. The polls are talking

02:58

about removing him right now. And none

03:00

of the militaries work. The British have

03:02

said, “We can’t buy any new equipment

03:04

until 2030. We don’t have anything.” So

03:05

there Forget the British military,

03:07

they’ve always been a joke. You could

03:08

fill uh a modern soccer stadium, you

03:11

know, we’re getting ready for the World

03:12

Cup, one of these stadiums we’re going

03:13

to host a game. You could put the entire

03:15

British military inside it and still

03:17

have 30,000 unsold seats. So they’re a

03:19

joke. Forget about the Brits. The

03:21

French, they can’t deploy more than

03:23

7,000 troops at once and they don’t have

03:25

the airlift capacity and they have no

03:26

logistic sustainability. So they’re a

03:28

joke and they can’t build up because

03:29

they have an economy that doesn’t

03:31

function. This is why their their their

03:33

their their you know, governments have

03:35

collapsed repeatedly because of

03:36

budgetary issues. And you’re suddenly

03:38

going to say that they’re going to

03:39

sacrifice pensions and and and and other

03:42

worker compensation to build up a

03:43

military for war that doesn’t need to

03:45

exist. So they’re done. And then there

03:47

we have the Germans. They put 111

03:50

billion euro into a military

03:52

replenishment fund and they can’t say

03:54

what they built with it. 111 billion

03:57

euro

03:59

went into this replenishment fund in

04:01

2022 and they’ve got nothing to show for

04:03

it because their military is so broken,

04:06

so fundamentally broken that it’s just a

04:08

money pit. And they could just pour

04:10

money in. The Germans can’t do anything.

04:12

They they mobilize this brigade going to

04:15

Lithuania. Always a bad idea to have a

04:17

German brigade in Lithuania going up

04:19

against the Russians, but hey, I’m just

04:21

a historian. What do I know?

04:23

But [laughter] they

04:25

they they can’t build also count.

04:28

This brigade, yeah, I mean 5,000, but

04:30

it’s not even a full Yeah, there’s three

04:32

battalions in this brigade. One of those

04:33

battalions is a mixed NATO battalion.

04:36

And then there’s two. There’s a German

04:37

armor battalion and a German armored

04:39

infantry battalion. They don’t have

04:41

vehicles for these battalions. And the

04:43

German industry can’t build these

04:44

vehicles because German steel works

04:47

can’t produce the armor because they

04:49

can’t afford the gas. They’re shut down.

04:51

So the Germans have to buy the steel

04:52

plate from the Swedes.

04:54

But everybody right now is looking to

04:55

buy the steel plate from the Swedes. So

04:57

there’s a backlog. This is the state of

05:00

reality that Europe can do nothing right

05:04

now. DAVIS: Okay, so so let me ask you a

05:05

follow-on question. What you’re saying

05:06

so far is profound. This is

05:09

earth-shattering and nobody is talking

05:12

about this.

05:13

The logic is very sound, but I I’ve not

05:16

heard anybody say that basically the

05:18

decision has been made. They’re just

05:19

looking for the execution unless there’s

05:21

a change on the western side. That is

05:23

the That was the second question I was

05:24

going to ask, too, because if now I’m I

05:27

am putting on my my western military hat

05:30

and I’m going to say, “Okay, looking at

05:32

reality as you just said here on the

05:34

ground. We have spent the last four plus

05:36

years giving tens of thousands of combat

05:39

vehicles and other kinds of equipment to

05:41

to Ukraine. They have expended thousands

05:44

upon on of of

05:46

missiles. I mean, you name it. All the

05:48

interceptor missiles just uh in the huge

05:50

numbers. And then of course now then

05:52

here we’ve just blown up through another

05:54

huge portion in Iran. And so United

05:56

States has burned through those. So we

05:57

got nothing left to give to our European

05:59

allies.

06:00

Uh they don’t have enough they can’t

06:02

their industrial capacity can’t build

06:03

squat. So if Russia does what you say,

06:08

our hands are empty. There’s almost

06:10

nothing we can do unless we want to get

06:12

foolish and say no, we are going to fire

06:14

some missiles back and hit something

06:15

inside of Russia, which would then I

06:18

think elevate the thoughts of Karaganov

06:20

and his his kind of folks too. This is a

06:22

really really dangerous place here. How

06:24

do you see it playing out?

06:26

RITTER: Well, it’s very dangerous. Let me just

06:27

again, if you want let’s let’s just talk

06:29

numbers.

06:30

The Russians have built a a Shaheed

06:33

factory outside of Kazan.

06:36

The Shaheed is the Shaheed 136 the you

06:39

the the triangular shaped delta drone

06:42

that’s ubiquitous.

06:44

Ubiquitously. I shouldn’t use big words

06:46

when I can’t say them right.

06:47

>> [laughter]

06:47

>> My brain was saying it my mouth was

06:49

stumbling. But

06:51

you know, it’s it’s it’s used a lot.

06:53

There’s that’s [clears throat] how a

06:54

marine speaks. They use a lot of them.

06:56

Um so you know,

06:58

they the production capacity of that a

07:00

couple years ago was 1,000 a day.

07:04

Uh the the maximum usage of the of the

07:06

drones up until that time the Russians

07:08

were using 250 300 a day. That means

07:11

that Russia was stockpiling 750 700 of

07:14

these a day. A day.

07:17

Um now the size of that facility has

07:19

tripled and they’re producing not just

07:21

136s but they’re building um they’re

07:24

building you know, new jet versions. The

07:26

the Geran is what it’s called the

07:27

geranium. Uh they have the Geranium 2 3

07:30

4 5 6. Now the 6 which is a just

07:33

basically a like a V2 looking rocket. Um

07:36

And the Russians are just pumping these

07:38

things out. Um they’re stockpiling them.

07:41

The Russians just showed the other day

07:43

that they can saturate Ukraine’s

07:44

airspace. 1,500 launched in a day.

07:47

Uh they can expand that launch capacity.

07:50

Um they can darken the skies of Europe

07:52

and Europe has no air defense. I’ll just

07:54

say that one more time. Europe has no

07:55

air defense. There’s no air defense in

07:57

Europe today. The Germans know this. Uh

08:00

they said, “What can we do to stop the a

08:01

Russian attack on uh Germany?” Answer

08:03

is, “Nothing. There’s nothing you can do

08:05

because you have nothing.”

08:06

You literally have no air defense

08:08

capacity. Russia can darken the skies of

08:10

Europe with drones.

08:12

Um again, if they want to put 3,000

08:14

drones over uh Europe a day, um

08:18

you know, and I just told you what their

08:20

their capacity. They’ve been they’ve

08:21

been, you know, bankrolling 700 a day.

08:24

So, in 10 days that’s 7,000. Uh in a

08:27

month that’s 21,000. That’s now been a

08:29

couple years. So, the Russians will be

08:31

able to sustain a 3,000 drone a day

08:34

attack against a continent that can’t

08:37

defend itself for several months.

08:40

Meaning they will literally flatten

08:41

everything. There’s nothing Europe could

08:42

do. Now we bring we bring to bear the

08:45

fact that the Oreshnik and other long-range

08:47

missiles because the United States in

08:49

our stupidity have withdrawn from the

08:51

INF treaty. And now the Russians have

08:53

take action. It’s not just the Oreshnik they

08:55

have. They have an Oreshnik 2.0 that

08:57

nobody’s talking right now, which is an

08:59

improvement on the Oreshnik. They have the

09:01

Iskander K, which is a long-range cruise

09:04

missile variant of the um of the of the

09:07

of the Iskander missile. So, Russia will

09:09

be able to fire hundreds of these a day

09:12

into strategic targets, aircraft,

09:15

bunkers, etc. Europe is defenseless.

09:18

Defenseless. There’s nothing Europe can

09:21

do to defend itself. Uh this is my way

09:24

of telling the Europeans, “Shut up.”

09:26

You will lose. You’ve got nothing. You

09:29

have no capacity to counter this. The

09:32

Americans didn’t have enough. Even if we

09:34

had saved all our weapons, we can’t

09:35

match the Russians strike for strike.

09:37

and today we’ve got nothing. Listen to

09:39

what they say in Congress. We have

09:40

depleted our long-range standoff

09:42

weapons. Europe has no capacity for

09:44

long-range standoff weapons and even if

09:46

they did, they can’t survive the

09:48

repeated strikes that’ll come in and

09:50

destroy the infrastructure necessary to

09:52

deploy this capacity. So it’s game, set,

09:54

match. The Russians have already won

09:56

this war.

09:58

What needs to happen now is for Europe

10:00

to recognize this reality and recognize

10:02

the stupidity of literally trying to

10:06

push towards a war.DAVIS:  So two two

10:08

questions. First, what do you say to

10:10

those people who say Russia would never

10:12

actually do that? They’re not going to

10:13

cross line because they know we’ve got

10:15

Article 5 and we’ve got nuclear weapons.

10:17

If they started down this path then it’s

10:18

going to be nuclear Armageddon and

10:20

they’re going to lose so they would

10:21

never do that. What do you say to that?

10:24

RITTER: Um

10:26

Are [clears throat] you trying to tell

10:27

me that the United States has made the

10:28

decision to use nuclear weapons

10:30

preemptively in a non-nuclear

10:31

environment?

10:32

>> no. I’m I’m saying that they wouldn’t

10:33

even launch this these clouds of UAVs

10:36

and and and drones because they know the

10:38

Russians they they know that we would

10:40

then reply with nuclear weapons so they

10:42

would never advance that big We wouldn’t

10:44

reply with nuclear weapons. We’ve

10:45

already said we wouldn’t reply with

10:47

nuclear. In fact, um you know, during

10:49

the Biden administration we said if

10:51

Russia used a nuclear weapon against

10:52

Ukraine, we would respond non-nuclear

10:55

with long-range standoff weapons which

10:56

we no longer have by the way. So you

10:58

know,

10:59

um so we’re no, we’re not going to

11:01

respond with nuclear weapons. Um if

11:03

Russia launches a conventional attack

11:05

against Europe, um

11:07

you know, we’d have to respond

11:08

conventionally and we lack it right now

11:11

and there’s no way Europe’s going to

11:12

commit suicide. What are What is Europe

11:13

going to do? Could you imagine the

11:14

decision decision-making uh you know, uh

11:17

discussion in uh Paris?

11:19

Oh, Mr. President, I can’t do a French

11:21

accent so I won’t try. But I

11:23

France wins. France wins. But uh

11:26

something you don’t hear every day.

11:27

Cheers. But uh you know

11:29

Yeah. So that they launch a drone attack

11:32

against Germany.

11:33

Now, the French meet.

11:35

They say, “What weapons they use? A

11:36

bunch of Shaheeds, a couple of Oreshniks.

11:38

What’s our response?

11:40

What are you going to you going to

11:41

launch a couple nukes from a submarine?

11:43

Mr. President, the moment the submarine

11:45

launches, the Russians are going to hit

11:46

us with uh 2% of their nuclear arsenal.

11:49

All of France will disappear.”

11:51

Cuz that’s the that’s the discussion

11:53

that will be had in London, in Paris,

11:55

anywhere.

11:56

The second we respond with something

11:59

that looks like a nuclear weapon, the

12:01

Russians have said, “We won’t be the

12:02

first to launch,

12:04

But

12:05

>> but we’re not going to be the first to

12:06

receive.” Meaning that if the Russians

12:08

detect a launch, the Russians will

12:11

respond with everything they have. So,

12:14

now put you you put yourself in a French

12:16

decision-maker. You going to make that

12:17

call?

12:19

Well, especially if somebody in your

12:20

intelligence says, “Well, those Germans

12:22

sort of asked for it, boss. You know,

12:23

we’ve been warning you about the

12:24

consequences of uh building weapons for

12:26

the Ukrainians and giving it to the

12:28

Ukrainians and giving them intelligence

12:29

that the Russians aren’t going to sit

12:30

there and take that all day.” So,

12:31

Russia’s responded with conventional

12:33

weapons.

12:34

We have no ability to respond

12:36

conventionally. What do we do, Mr.

12:37

President? You want to commit suicide?

12:40

You want to fire a nuke against Russia,

12:42

and Russia will kill everybody here and

12:44

in all of Europe? Do you want that, Mr.

12:46

President? And he answers, “No.” Europe

12:48

will do nothing, and the Russians know

12:50

they will do nothing. Want to know why

12:52

the Russians know they will do nothing?

12:53

Because Russian intelligence is pretty

12:55

damn good. And if you don’t think the

12:56

Russians have literally recruited people

12:58

on the inside of the decision-making

13:00

cycles in a completely um broken-up

13:04

France. France is the easiest place to

13:05

recruit a politician nowadays because

13:07

they have political dissension

13:08

everywhere.

13:10

But E- England’s the the second easiest

13:12

place to recruit. Germany, Russia owns

13:15

Germany in terms of inside

13:16

decision-making. Russia has intelligence

13:18

operatives throughout Europe, and they

13:20

know exactly what Europe’s thinking.

13:22

And so, I don’t think the Russians I

13:24

think Vladimir Putin is a very

13:25

well-informed national leader who has

13:28

been very pragmatic for a reason.

13:30

There’s a reason why he hasn’t been

13:32

seeking to expand his conflict because

13:34

he’d been confident in the outcome. But

13:36

now Europe has crossed red lines. Europe

13:39

has empowered Ukraine to bring real harm

13:41

to Russia. So Russia’s going to take

13:43

Ukraine off the playing field and punish

13:45

Europe because Russia can’t sit back and

13:48

allow Europe to believe that they can

13:50

build up a military capable of fighting

13:52

Russia by 2029 2030. I think the

13:54

decision’s already been made.

13:56

DAVIS: And it has has has anybody in Russia,

13:59

even if it’s bloggers or anybody else,

14:00

has said this publicly that it’s

14:02

basically the red line has been crossed.

14:03

It’s now only a matter of timing before

14:05

something gets struck in Europe. I don’t

14:07

think people in Russia dare speak on

14:10

behalf of Vladimir Putin. This is a

14:11

decision only Vladimir Putin can make.

14:13

There are people who say there’s a need

14:15

to do this, but nobody’s going to be

14:17

speaking about um

14:19

policy decisions. That’s just the way um

14:21

Russia

14:22

>> DAVIS: what what leads you to make this

14:23

confident assertion cuz it’s it’s

14:25

earth-shattering?

14:26

RITTER: Uh because I’ve been studying Russia for

14:28

my entire adult life. Um and I know a

14:30

couple things about the Russians that uh

14:32

for Russians words matter. Everything

14:34

the Russians say matter. Every word

14:36

counts. Russians don’t use word lightly,

14:39

especially Russians in government

14:40

service. And as you pointed out, there

14:42

is a marked change in the tone of uh of

14:46

Russian leadership. And I’m not a fluent

14:48

Russian speaker. I I I butcher Russian

14:50

almost as bad as I butcher the English

14:51

language. Uh but I know some people who

14:53

are. Ray McGovern, who I believe you

14:55

know very well, is a very seasoned uh

14:58

Russian analyst who speaks the Russian

14:59

language fluently. And he not only picks

15:02

up on the interpretation that I that I

15:05

read the translations, but the exact

15:07

Russian words. You know, Russians can

15:09

use different words to say the same

15:11

thing. And the words they use bring

15:13

about a different meaning. And Ray

15:15

McGovern has been listening to the words

15:16

being used by the Russians and their

15:18

very specific language. And I think the

15:20

Russians have tightened their language,

15:22

tightened their messaging. Uh the fact

15:24

but the problem is the West we don’t

15:25

have people educated enough to

15:27

understand the messaging the Russians

15:28

putting out there. But by reading this

15:30

again, I’m not bragging but you know,

15:32

I’ve done connect the dot predictive

15:34

analysis my entire adult life. And I’ve

15:36

got the vast majority of things right

15:38

and where I’ve gotten it wrong it’s just

15:40

because certain uh you know, for

15:41

instance

15:42

I I I like reading your comments.

15:43

“Ritter, you said they were going to

15:45

take Kiev in 3 days.” Well, I actually

15:46

said 7 days. Um but I I I just

15:50

But I happen to match the uh assessment

15:52

of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of

15:53

Staff and the Director CIA uh who all

15:56

believe that when Russia crossed the

15:57

border, Russia was going in for the

15:58

kill. That this was a full-scale

16:00

military invasion. I was wrong. Nobody

16:03

predicted the special military

16:04

operation. There’s not a single person

16:06

out there that says, “I knew it was a

16:07

special military operation.” And when

16:09

Russia announced it was special military

16:10

operation, none of these people said,

16:13

“Ah, uh you know, I know what that

16:15

means.” Nobody knows what it means. Uh

16:17

and ever since then, you know, you we’ve

16:19

been assessing the situation based upon

16:21

an incomplete set of facts. But one

16:22

thing I’ve been consistent on, Russia’s

16:24

going to win this war. Uh Russia will

16:26

not lose this war. NATO does not

16:28

have the capacity to defeat Russia and

16:30

Ukraine doesn’t have the capacity to

16:32

survive a war of attrition against

16:34

Russia. Now we’re seeing it play out.

16:35

NATO wanted to change the paradigm by

16:37

playing stupid games. It’s an MI6 driven

16:40

operation. Um but now they’re going to

16:42

pay the price. I’ve listened to the

16:44

Russians. Um as I said, I was at the

16:47

Russian Embassy on the on May 7th the

16:50

the day they celebrated Victory Day. I

16:52

listened to the speech. I listened to

16:53

the videos. I listened to the officers

16:55

and uh I walked away saying, “This is a

16:57

completely different completely

16:59

different atmosphere. It’s a darker

17:02

atmosphere. It’s a an atmosphere that is

17:04

preparing for war, not preparing for

17:05

peace.” DAVIS: Yeah, we had actually John

17:07

Mearsheimer on our show yesterday come

17:09

to that same conclusion. He thinks

17:10

something is is coming uh that we’re

17:12

just psychologically not prepared for.

17:14

…

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.