Early Tuesday morning, Kyiv Post reported that on Ukraine’s 35th anniversary of independence, “the US has again declined to join a United Nations statement condemning Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.” The “why” – at least part of the why – presented itself later in the day when social media exploded with reports that a US Air Force C-17A reportedly had landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. It’s hard to keep anything a secret anymore as “OSINT analysts tracked its route: on Aug. 23, the aircraft, callsign RCH4555 and registration 07-7181, flew from Charleston via Joint Base Andrews near Washington to Riga. This morning, it departed Riga without a publicly listed destination.” CBS News reported the passenger on the C-17 was CIA Director John Ratcliffe. CNN reported that “the US asked Ukraine to halt drone and missile strikes in Moscow and other cities in the north of Russia ahead of Ratcliffe’s trip” Monday through Wednesday, telling Ukraine that a senior US official would be traveling in Russia. The why seems apparent – get Russian President Vladimir Putin back to the negotiation table, which probably explains why the US declined to join the UN statement condemning Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. The White House didn’t want to “poison the well” before the meeting took place.