Just for the record I’ve never been a fan of Ritter personally, and he obviously has an axe to grind with the US establishment. But I will occasionally listen to what he has to say, taking his biases into account. But I prefer a synopsis, not going to wade through a long video with him.
But, he immediately came up with so many false premises, that there was no point watching.
This has become to an extent, a proxy war for NATO. But, it only became so, because it became an existential war for Ukraine.
It never would have gotten this far, except the Ukrainians proved they could and would, fight.
The idea that Russia can change the conflict into an existential one for Russia by this obviously contrived "annexation" of Ukrainian territory, is silly.
It can only fly if the Russian people buy into it. I do not think they will do so.