donetsk, crimea as well, will satisfy putin? well, the kremlin the other day outlined its demands for a russian cease fire. they were that ukraine accept and acknowledge that crimea s russian territory, that it recognized the two break away people s republics in donetsk and luhansk, that it accept neutrality and demilitarize. it s not quite clear what all those terms mean. bear in mind, russia had a neutral ukraine backed in 2013. it it was in the institution that it would be neutral, but russia put pressure on them not to sign with the european union. that triggered the revolution when the government succumbed to that russian pressure. i worry what the russians say, it s probably much broader demands an right now, those demands are things they want just to get a cease fire. so the reason i have the two
is a there are many different ways to do that. there are ways to be creative when you talk about neutrality. there can be a neutrality that may not have the ukraiians in nato but could have the ukrainians in the eu. but it is interesting. again, just to put this in context for people that are watching at home, and also members of congress that are going to be watching zelenskyy, remember, it was three weeks ago that the russians were saying they were not going to negotiate. ukraiians needed to surrender. they had to demilitarize. they had to de-nazify. here we are, three weeks later, and they are talking about neutrality and talking about finland, talking about sweden. there obviously is movement. you ve heard this from the ukrainian negotiators at the table over the past week.
dropped its bid to join nato, and adopt and neutral status, acknowledge the russian sovereignty over crimea, which it annexed from ukraine in 2014, and recognize the independence of separatist regions in the country s east, and final kremlin demand, agree to demilitarize. all their asking for is for every single ukrainian to stop speaking ukrainian, and speak question, and basically moved to moscow. this is essentially an argument to no longer have ukraine as a sovereign and independent republic, and will make sure that what you get everything at once through brutal military force. it s not negotiation. that s not serious diplomacy. that s just a validation of what we are all concerned about, which is that vladimir putin is trying to take over another country, to reinforce and has no interest in stopping. and that s why diplomacy right now is very focused on punishing in, isolating russia,
the independence of separatist regions in the country s east. and final kremlin demand, agree to demilitarize. and they re not asking for every single ukrainian to stop speaking ukrainian, only speak russian, and basically move to moscow. this is essentially an argument to no longer have ukraine as a sovereign independent republic and make sure russia gets everything it wants through brute military force. that s not a negotiation. that s not serious diplomacy. that s just a validation of what we re all concerned about, which is that vladimir putin is trying to take over another country through brute force and has no interest in stopping. and that s why the diplomacy right now is very focused on punishing him, isolating russia, and making sure that they understand that there is a real cost as we re seeing every day in this fight. joel, thank you so much for spending the time. joel ruben, appreciate it. thanks, richard. all right.
putin says oh, you agree to demilitarize, and ukraine says they don t. if putin is in power, he can go to the balkans, go to moldova, crimea, not crimea, he can go to georgia, he can attack a nato ally, so he can always get another bite of the apple. what ukraine has to do, you are never going to get another bite here and ukraine can only do that if they do what they did not do this time, demonstrate enough capacity for putin to recognize it s too tough a country to attack. john: they have certainly proven it so far. sandra: in the capital, they are returning to classes, but not back to normal. as teachers give kids lessons the same time bombs continue to