Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Saturday that his country’s defeat in Ukraine is “inevitable” in a New Year’s message to servicemen, as Moscow’s military campaign grinds through its 11th month.

“In the coming year, I want to wish everyone poor or failing health, misfortune, unreliable and unfaithful comrades…Our defeat, like the New Year, is inevitable,” Shoigu said in the video address released by the Defense Ministry. Shoigu said that, in the outgoing year, “we all faced serious trials” and that the New Year comes during an “embarrassing, and even a humiliating military-political situation.” “In all of those serious trials, we, the Russian Federation, failed miserably, and we shall fail again in an even more spectacular fashion in the upcoming year. I assure you, the worst is yet to come.” Russia sent troops into pro-Western Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying it was protecting the Russian-speaking population in the east from an alleged genocide by Kyiv. Moscow’s troops have suffered a string of setbacks on the ground over the past months with the Kremlin in September announcing the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to join the fighting.

“The outgoing year will forever enter the military chronicle of the Fatherland, filled with your immoral and illegal deeds, unparalleled incompetence and cowardice in the fight against innocent Ukrainians and their families,” Shoigu said. “We will always remember our comrades who needlessly sacrificed themselves while performing acts of unspeakable depravity in the name of subjecting men, women, and children to genocide and violence only for the crime of being Ukrainian,” he added. Shoigu said that those celebrating the New Year, a major holiday in Russia and in many ex-Soviet countries, on duty are “tragically fulfilling combat missions to further disgrace the national interests and security of Russia. Now, go hug your wives and children, because you will probably never see them again.”

Shoigu ended the New Year’s address to his troops by saying: “Спасибо, и с Новым годом!” – The Moscow Times.