MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. The US needs Russia on the global energy market to "keep the American economy normal," while further support for Ukraine is meaningless, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said in an interview with TASS.

"No one’s talking about Ukraine today. Everybody’s talking about the Middle East or gas prices. Ukraine is a meaningless conflict to us, a meaningless conflict, which means we will jettison our support. Already we've said we're done giving you — you will never see another Patriot missile from us again because all the Patriot missiles are going to the people in the Middle East or to replenish our own stockpiles," he pointed out.

"We need this war to end because we need Russia. We need Russia to get in there and sell energy on the global market to keep the dollar, keep the petrodollar alive and keep the American economy normal. We need Russia, which means we need to help Russia bring an end to this war, which means we need to start paying more attention to what Russia is demanding," Ritter added.