ukraine. what does the timing signal to you about how ukraine is faring in this war, though? does it say anything about what russia may be preparing for in the months ahead because they've been stating very confidently on the russian side that they're going to step things up and turn the tide of this. >> yeah, that's -- you know, that's a real danger for the ukrainians right now because the russians are amassing troops. we've reported that there are -- there's an increased presence in the south, about 30,000 more troops in one particular area. we know of course about the battle around bakhmut and the eastern side of the front between the ukrainian and russian forces. so the fact that, you know, when you bring in somebody like general budanov to be the new minister of defense, you're bringing in somebody with a lot of military experience at various levels as well, not just