Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson : 28-Point Plan Is Dead on Arrival.

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

Larry Johnson : 28-Point Plan Is Dead on Arrival.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, November 24th, 2025. Larry Johnson will be with us in just a moment on why the 28-point peace plan, whoever drafted it, it's dead on arrival. But first this. History tells us every market eventually falls. Currencies collapse. And look at where we are now. 38 trillion in national debt. Stocks at record highs defying gravity. So what happens next? Groceries, gas, housing, everything's going up.

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Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend. Thanks for accommodating my schedule, as always. Do we know who or what authored the 28-point plan? We know who didn't. Russia. So Russia didn't author it. Apart from that, we've had one version released by a Ukrainian legislator. another version leaked to axios in the financial times so there are two or three versions out there

it appears that Keith Kellogg may have been one of the people who leaked a version again we don't know what what versions what but you know if you've read both at least the two versions I've seen you still come away with the basic conclusion that this is a document generated by the that does not take into account Russia's fundamental demands. Let's start with a couple of specifics. Why would the Russians agree to a military, Ukrainian military, of 600,000, when that is many, many, exponentially more than what was agreed to in the Istanbul proposal trashed by Biden and Boris Johnson

in 2022. Well, in fact, they would be agreeing to a larger standing army of Ukrainians than existed at the start of the special military operation in February of 2022. Now, again, put the number I've seen. One documents is 600,000. The Europeans are saying, oh, 800,000. Good luck finding them. You know, right now, Ukraine cannot keep, you know, an army in the field.

They are losing personnel at an accelerating rate every month. They reportedly can only recruit about 17,000, but they're losing between deaths, injuries, or wounds from battle, or desertions, at least $60,000 a month. Wow. You know, that means they've got at a minimum, a net loss of 43,000 soldiers every month. That's unsustainable. I'm going through a piece written by our mutual friend Pepe Escobar. He starts the piece by saying he agrees 100% with Larry Johnson's analysis. So I'm assuming you're on the same page. But some of this stuff is crazy. A U.S. mediated Russia-Nado dialogue will be launched to resolve security issues and promote cooperation. Why would Russia and engage in a dialogue with NATO over Ukraine mediated by Trump.

Yeah, yeah. No, this is the, what we have here, to quote the old Cool Hand Luke movie, what we have here is a failure to communicate. So on the part of the West, the NATO, they've got so, they've got still got some fundamental assumptions about Russia. They assume that Vladimir Putin is desperate to end the war, that the economy and Russia is so bad that they're under pressure, they'll take any deal to stop, you know, stop the pain, that they've lost so many soldiers that it's unsustainable, that they want

out, and that the political pressure against Putin is mounting. Now, none of that is true. It's absolutely not true. All of it is fundamentally false, but those are the assumptions of the West. and therefore the proposals that have come out in these various versions of the peace plan or the framework for discussion carry with it that assumption that Russia is somehow under pressure and the West is an ability to apply pressure to end the war. And Russia's standpoint is just the opposite. They say, look, we'll be happy to have a negotiated settlement, provided that it meets our demand.

And their fundamental demands are the denotification and demilitarization of Ukraine, period. And the demilitarization then goes to the extent of getting NATO to back the hell away and take down the weapons systems that are currently in place in Poland and Romania that could potentially carry a nuclear weapon or a nuclear warhead. And Russia said, listen, we're happy. We'll sit down. We'll talk. We'd prefer to talk rather than fight.

But that's our, you know, that's where we start from. There's no retreating from those goals. And now it's been added to it is the fact that the Donets, Luhans, Kerasan, Zaporizia, are now permanently part of the Russian Federation. Not just part, not just a sliver of territory, the entirety of each of those former Ukrainian oblast is now permanently part of Russia. And Putin doesn't have the power to sit there and say, okay, let's make it the, yeah, I'll give you a Zaporizia and Khrasan

if you give me Denezk and Lujans. No, not going to happen. And yet, that's one of the other things, how the West approaches. It's that, oh, we'll freeze this in place. In fact, Kellogg supposedly was pushing a plan that there would be a ceasefire in place and where the Russians are stopped where they are in Denezsk. and then the West builds a wall. I mean, they're going to build a friggin wall

across this vast expanse of territory to separate the Ukrainians from the Russia. You mean a literal wall like a Berlin wall? Yes, yes, yes. No wonder Kellogg has gone. This is insane. Yeah, it's just crazy. You know, somebody's got a brother-in-law in the concrete business

who's going to, you know, hoping to get the contract. But look, Larry, there's other bizarre things in here. The frozen Russian assets, the U.S. gets to administer $100 billion. Now, Donald Trump's going to participate in the theft of Russian assets and European banks. Yeah, and that's got the Europeans upset because they thought that money was theirs. And then you've got the actual clearinghouse, Euroclear, that holds the money, saying, you all can't do this because that's... going to create some real economic problems for us here in Europe beyond what we already have.

So, you know, this is, we're witnessing, really, this is a repeat on a much grander scale of what transpired back in January, February of 2015. The Battle of DeBalzava, which is on the border of Lahansk and Danesk, that was a significant defeat for the Ukrainian army at that time. It wasn't nearly as big as it was a few years later. And you had the Europeans intervened frantically. Francois Hollande and

Angela Merkel of Germany. And then the United States sort of signed on on the side. Belarus President Lukashenko hosted talks. And they signed Minsk too.

And the purpose of Minsk, too, was from the Russian standpoint, it was going to preserve the language and rights of the Russian speakers in Danesk and Lohans to live without being attacked. Well, we then learned, you know, in December of 2022, Merkel and Halan both admit, yeah, it was a ruse. You know, we were just trying to buy Ukraine time so it could reconstitute its army. That's all it was.

And frankly, that's all this proposed peace deal is. It comes at a time that Russia is wiping the floor with the Ukrainian forces. They are moving and advancing, Russia is moving and advancing all along the line of contact. And you've got major pockets of Ukrainian troops that are trapped, particularly what's going on in Zaporizia and Nipro-Petrovsk, neither of which up to this point were on Russia's list of we're going to keep this territory, but it's rapidly, Russia's going to be in a position, I think, as soon as the end of December, that they'll be at the Nipur River,

moving through Nipro, Phrost, and Zaporizia that quickly. And once they're there, particular, they control the river. Or if they get across the river in Ghearsan, they will then take full control of the Nipa River. And you control the Nipur River, that means any product, any grain, anything shipping down from the upper part of Ukraine, will be in Russian hands.

It literally strangles the economy of Ukraine. Do you think that any of this is designed as sort of a deception to get our eyes off of Israel now bombing Lebanon and Trump about to invade Venezuela? No, I don't think they're that clever. you know but it does it does sort of serve that purpose

you know we're you remember the the furor and all the all the attention that surrounded the anchorage meeting and a lot of heavy breathing back then and then you know three or four days later you know what meeting

I think that's going to be the result this week the the most likely scenario is that the United States, the Europeans, and Zelensky, they'll come up with a plan that they'll all sort of agree to. I don't see Trump walking away from Ukraine. He should, but I don't see it. So they'll come up with a plan, and they'll present it to Russia.

And Russia, their initial reaction will be, oh, we'll take a look, let us read it over. But then, once they read it over, they're going to have to set a meeting. and, you know, Russia will negotiate each and every point in whatever the U.S. and the West presents. And I don't see the U.S. or Ukraine agreeing to permit Russia to retain control of Zapparisia and Kherson. But they're going to. Russia is. Russia's not going to relent on that. Putin can't. Let me put this way. If Putin tried to cut such a deal, I think there would. be a move to remove Putin from office. Wow. Well, here's Putin himself yesterday in military

garb on all of this. Chris, number two. I think it's clear to everyone that these people, sitting on golden pots, are hardly thinking about the fate of their country, the fate of ordinary Ukrainians, the officer corps, and especially the ordinary soldiers. It doesn't give it to them. But you and I have our own tasks, our own goals. The most important of these, of course, is achieving the goal of the special military operation and solving the problems set before us by our fatherland and the people of Russia. The Russian people are counting on you, hoping for the results the country needs. Let's get to work. Now, that's a pretty significant statement, is it not?

Yeah, yeah. In military garb to all of his senior generals broadcast by the Russian foreign ministry around the world. That's a significant statement. Yeah. Well, and it is customary whenever, when Putin goes to visit a military headquarters out in the field, that he will wear a military uniform.

So that's not unusual. But, you know, all I encourage people to do is, if you're having trouble hearing Putin, go to an audiologist, get a hearing test, buy the hearing aids. Listen to what he's saying. He's not being clever. He's not using coded words. He's saying very, very clearly, Russia is going to achieve its objectives. It is happy to achieve those objectives diplomatically, if possible.

But if not, okay, they're going to do it militarily. Russia is under no pressure to end this thing quickly. And you know what? I think from their standpoint, if they continue to drag out the West, to force the West to keep pouring money into this black hole that is Ukraine, great it's just it's another way to weaken the West there's nothing in this

entire everything that's happened over the course of the last 47 months now is we have seen every single NATO weapons system every single one the ones provided by the United

States Germany France they've been defeated encountered by Russia there's not a single tactic that the West has been able to employ that has caused Russia to permanently lose territory. The early success they had, Ukraine did in September of 2022, was simply because Russia didn't have enough troops in the field

to deal with the counteroffensive. But they do now. And there are now reports have emerged that the North Koreans are back. Why? Well, North Koreans get combat experience. This is much better than going to a, you know, field training, whether you're faking it.

You're not firing real ammunition. And they're not having to deal with drones, actual drones attacking you. So it's a way for North Korea to get more, get actual combat experience. And Russia is happy to use them. But Russia on its own, it's still built up its ground forces to around 750. And if you recall back in February of 2022, it was only 250,000. So they've tripled the size of the ground force. And now they're in a position where they're able to actually carry out these operations from north to south.

And Ukraine does not have enough bodies to counter all that. President Zelensky, of course, has a dilemma between ending this voluntarily and losing his job and maybe his life or separating himself from his biggest patron to this point, the United States. Here he is expressing that dilemma. He also throws something else in here I hadn't thought about. It's November. A very cold winter coming to Ukraine. Chris, number three. This is one of the most difficult moments in our history. The pressure on Ukraine, Ukraine is now at its most intense. Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner, or 28 difficult points, or an extremely harsh

winter. The most difficult and further risk are life without freedom, without dignity, without justice, and believing someone who has already attacked us twice. sounds to me like he's going to reject this and probably in his own mind has rejected it already yeah uh you know i think you'll have a change of heart uh once the the whole money issue gets put on the table um the the while he is under pressure from the the neo nazis that in that are behind the power behind the throne in ukraine uh it's uncle sam aka Uncle Sugar, that's providing all the financial lubrication to keep things going and, you know, help pad his bank account.

So, you know, I think, you know, they're going to, he'll compromise to a point that the United States can have something to offer Russia. Because what, this is a game. They want to be able to go out and blame Russia. See, those Russians, man, they refuse. They won't take a good deal. But notice how the tone and substance of what Zelensky is saying has changed. You go back a month ago, Russia is losing the war.

Crane's winning. Russia's losing. Now all of a sudden it's like, oh, this is the most difficult time in our history. Very good point. We don't even hear, you know, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, or Lindsay Graham anymore saying Russia's losing. Yeah. Maybe even Jack Keene is finally starting to see the light. Well, Jack gets compensated handsomely for what he says. Or, oh, buddy, Mr. Divine.

Wow. You know, look, the reality is the reason that this peace plan gets advanced now, it's the same scenario that happened surrounding the defeat of the Ukrainians at DeBalseva back in February, January of 2022. It's a way for the West to try to use a peace process to buy Ukraine more time, to buy the West more time so they can figure out how the hell do we beat these Russians. And the answer is, you can't. Who is the de facto Secretary of State in the United States? Is it Marco Rubio? Is it Steve Whitkoff?

Is it Jared Kushner? No, I think it's Rubio. I think he's got, he has an enormous amount of influence. and he's one of the reasons we still stay engaged in this war. He does not want the war to end. He's from, they could correct me if I'm wrong, Larry, or you see this differently. He's from the Victoria Newland School will use the war as a battering ram, as absurd as this is, with which to drive Vladimir Putin from office.

Well, I mean, in his mind, you know, the Russians are still the Soviets who backed the Cubans that kicked his family out of Cuba. And so, you know, he's still, he's frozen in the past. But, you know, he's, he's not the only voice. I mean, you've got, you've got Pete Hankseth as well surrounding him. You got Scott Bessent, the secretary of treasury. You know, Trump could easily put an end to this today. You simply pull the plug on the money and the CIA personnel and the military supplies.

Pull the plug, cut it off. But he won't do that. So he's, you know, he's like, He's like Hamlet, you know, to be or not to be. Trump claims that the military supplies are being paid for by NATO. How can that be true? Where do those European countries have the money? Surely we're still spending what was put in the Joe Biden pipeline.

It was a Republican Congress, and Biden signed it into law. Yeah, no, they're taking the line, you know, wimpy from Popeye. They're going to gladly pay us Tuesday for some Patriot missiles today. So it's a paper transaction at this point. I don't think there's been actual money being moved from European accounts into U.S. accounts. Is there a military gear still coming from the United States to Ukraine? Nothing that's going to change the war on the ground. You know, there may be able to send a few more attack them, maybe a few more patriots.

So what? the Russians are advancing at a scale and pace that Ukraine and NATO cannot match and that's what sort of that reality is starting to sink in and as it sinks in they get more and more desperate but at least we saw in that the comment you played by Zelensky some of the delusional nonsense is slipping away

he's realizing hey we're in trouble you know this This ship is sinking. When you and Pepe and I were able to interrogate Maria Zarakova last week, I was only there for half an hour. You were there for two hours. Right. She was being truthful when asked, is there some sort of behind-the-scenes background being negotiated? Because this thing had not yet been revealed.

But wouldn't the FSB have known? Wouldn't somebody on the Russian hierarchy have known? Hey, this guy that went to Stanford that advises President Putin on financial matters and it's become buddy buddy with Whitkoff, he's in Miami for three days. Yeah. Yeah, no, the intelligence side of the house in Russia probably had something. Yeah, they report this is what the West is working on. This is what they're cooking up.

but there was never any formal presentation of it to the Russians. And in fact, Ushowraf, another advisor to Putin, sort of a counterweight to Carrillo-Dimitri, the guy you were referencing. He just came out and said, you know, we've not seen anything. We still haven't seen anything. There are not been any formal contacts. There are no plans about we're going to meet such and such day to start talking about this plan. He said, we're just, they're waiting to see what happens in Geneva.

And the fact is, you know, it's now 6 p.m. in Geneva, we've not seen any breaking news about some major breakthrough. So I think, you know, there's, you may still have a bit of a food fight going on between the Americans, the Europeans, with the Europeans backing Zelensky all the way. Our friend and colleague, Ian Proud, reports that the EU's counterproposal, to Rubio keeps the door ajar for Ukraine to join NATO or if anything is a non-starter

if anything is a misreading of the Russians, it's that. Yeah. Russia's under no pressure to reach a deal. That's the bottom line. You know, it's like if you're trying

to sell a car to somebody that doesn't want to buy a car, that's a tough sell. And in this case, the United States, It's trying to sell Russia something that is entirely outside of what Russia wants and needs. Russia is winning the battle on the ground, period. And there's nothing that NATO or Ukraine can do to change that situation.

But they're going to try. Right, right. Larry, thank you very much. You know, we have a very short week. We probably won't get an intel community round table in. But maybe Chris can put something together. But if I don't see, have a great Thanksgiving to you and your family, and we'll certainly see you a week from today, and maybe between now and Thursday.

All right, my friend. Take care. All the best. Thank you. Bye-bye. Coming up at 4 o'clock this afternoon on all of this, why does the United States still not understand the Russian mentality? Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.

Thank you.