escalation of the war in ukraine, announcing the mobilization of some 300,000 russian reservists and threatening a nuclear attack in clear and disturbing terms. translator: this is not a bluff. the citizens of russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our homeland, our independence and freedom will be ensured. and those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the prevailing winds can turn in their direction. now global leaders are responding to that, calling that announcement from putin a sign of panic and the administration saying an admission of failure. this as the mayor of kyiv says putin has, quote, launched the process that will bury him. the question, though, today, jim, is how will president biden respond when he speaks in just over an hour in front of a global audience? no question, and how seriously does the world take what is a very public threat from the russian president who has often followed through on threats. our team is
that process starts today and today, too, russia is still losing on multiple fronts here. yesterday appeared to be making some blog guess near bakhmut, but elsewhere it s is a bad story for their military. we ve seen them struggle as you ve been seeing yourself over the past six months just to equip their regular army once they are inside on multiple fronts around ukraine. a tall order certainly and one i think that may be more about trying to explain to the russian people that they are in this war, too, so much of ordinary life in russia has continued untouched, despite this war damaging nearly every corner of ukraine. on top of that as well we have these full referenda in occupied territories being no doubt no democracy at play here, we will just get a number at some point monday or tuesday telling us essentially fake how many people have voted in favor under war conditions, under military participation to join russia. it s likely moscow will accept