Former US Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo seems irked that the Ukraine conflict could end without Russia groveling and handing over concessions on a silver platter.

That’s because Russia is objectively winning on the battlefield. Even some establishment figures capable of independent thought have finally caught on. British historian Niall Ferguson has been saying since September that despite all the West’s punitive efforts, he struggled to imagine any scenario other than Russia “nevertheless grinds out a victory.”

Newsflash for Pompeo: The winning side making concessions for a ceasefire – beyond the ceasing of fire – isn’t how peace deals work, genius. But try explaining that to Pompeo, who has spent the past few years talking about Putin like he’s the guy Ukraine’s totally going to beat up in the school parking lot.

“The adversary here, Vladimir Putin, has – to best I can tell – conceded literally nothing to date. And while they say there’s 90 percent agreement, I doubt that Vladimir Putin thinks that the relevant 10 percent that remains is anything he’s willing to give up on,” Pompeo said recently in a TV interview. He added that the US should be heading in the opposite direction from denouement, to “impose far more punishing costs” on Russia. Clearly someone who has never met a loss that he was........

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