New Delhi, Nov. 27 -- US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll delivered a blunt and unsettling message to Ukrainian officials during a meeting in Kyiv last week, warning that Ukraine faced an "imminent defeat" on the battlefield if the current trajectory continued, NBC News cited two sources familiar with the discussion as saying.

Driscoll said Ukrainian forces were under increasing pressure as Russia intensified its aerial attacks, significantly escalating both the scale and pace of strikes. The Russians, he reportedly told officials, had the capability to sustain their military campaign "indefinitely."

According to one source, Driscoll's assessment was brutally direct. "The message was basically - you are losing," the source told the news outl...