Former U.S. marine intelligence officer and Chief UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, famous for exposing the fact that there were no “chemical weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq since 1991 (and thus no justification for the bloody U.S. war and occupation) has been a leading voice for negotiations, rather than escalation, in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February of 2022. Ritter has been a sought-after source of reporting and analysis ever since the U.S., NATO, and the Zelensky Kyiv Ukraine regime (put in place by a U.S./CIA backed coup in 2014) basically provoked the Russia invasion. As Ritter and others have pointed out, Russia basically was forced to invade the pro-Russian region of Eastern Ukraine to protect their security (from a would-be nuclear armed NATO member Ukraine) and to defend the pro-Russian separatist’s communities in the Eastern Ukraine (where 14,000 had been killed people by the Zelensy regime) in the Donbass region who were seeking autonomy from Kyiv. The Zelensky regime, egged on by the U.S. and NATO, basically broke the 2014 Ukraine/Russia agreement, the Minsk Accords, in which the Ukrainian government had pledged to stay neutral rather than joining the NATO military (nuclear-armed) alliance.

As Ritter explains on Scheerpost.com:

“The conditions for a settlement on U.S. and Ukrainian terms — such as Russia withdrawing from the four territories it recently annexed as well as Crimea, paying reparations and turning over senior military and civilian leaders for prosecution as war criminals — have almost no chance of happening.

Such thinking only underscores the hubris-laced fantasy world Washington has crafted for itself. The notion that Russia is somehow losing its military conflict with NATO-backed Ukraine, and its economic war with the West, is belied by the increasing desperation inherent in the growing calls for a negotiated settlement by senior U.S. officials [including General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff].

Ritter explains:” At the moment, Russia is shutting down the Ukrainian economy and Ukrainian society by destroying large sectors of Ukraine’s electrical power grid, throwing much of Ukraine into a cold darkness just as winter sets in.

Russia has stabilized the battlefield, withdrawing from untenable terrain while pouring 87,000 recently mobilized troops into the front lines to solidify its defenses. Meanwhile, it continues to undertake offensive operations in the Donbass, destroying Ukrainian forces while capturing territory that is part of the Donetsk.… Anyone attempting to breathe life into the concept of a [Biden administration]-driven “back channel” designed to bring Russia to the negotiating table must first discount Russia’s improving military posture. Russia simply will not be drawn to a negotiation designed to negate the advantages it has been accruing on the battlefield and beyond… Russia’s negotiation will be on the battlefield…”

Learn more: Scott Ritter: The Back Channel

Learn more on Substack: Where is the Ukraine Russia War Going?