government which they argue is illegitimate. and also another piece of really dramatic video today, and that was president putin. he was directly addressing ukraine s military, urging them to turn against their leaders, saying that you should take power in your hands. and also calling the government in kyiv terrorists, drug addicts and neo-nazis. not only demeaning and trying to give the impression to the people of russia and the world that the attack they re carrying out in kyiv is justified. jill dougherty, moskow. all right, ukraine considering a proposal to hold talks with russia according to an advisor to president zelenskyy, but what shape would those talks take if they were to go ahead? our next guest may have a clue. the author of fluid russia,
but everything they did from the beginning did not seem the break the ukrainians. and that brings us to the point where the negotiations can happen, because for the ukrainians if they re stronger on the ground they understand the russians can bring more and more force in. and actually when looking at syria the russians don t have to blitz it. they can go neighborhood by neighborhood and wear down kyiv and wear down kharkiv. if the ukrainians can put enough resistance they can counter from a much better position and hence the military assistance to ukraine is so crucial at this point. i wanted to tap into your expertise to ask you this. do you think post-soviet states which have moved in recent years towards the west would be justified in fearing fallout from all of this, fear being on putin s radar next if not short-term, longer-term. definitely. this is definitely a direction that we are already seeing.