they re used to this kind of thing, that no one s particularly panicking, that life continues much as it did. and that s because also, they ve been living with the threat for that long. so the problem for the americans is that that disconnect threatens to really divide that united front they ve been wanting to present. we heard that in the words of one official speaking to cnn on the american side and saying, look, here is president zelensky, and we understand the pressure he s under at home. after all, it s about keeping the economy going, relatively buoyant, trying to protect it from the fears of war. but look, here is a president who is on one hand dismissing or at least minimizing the threat of war even as he asks the united states for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons in order to prevent against that very threat. so different words, different rhe rhetoric, and of course the longer this goes on, the more difficult it will be. next week we expect a visit of the briti
the west over ukraine, the ball is in vladimir putin s court. that is what tony blinken told reporters yesterday after sending a letter to the russian government addressing its demands. right now the document is with them and the ball is in their court. we will see what they do. as i said repeatedly, when they choose the path of diplomacy and dialogue, or aggression against ukraine, we are prepared either way. at the same time, russia is engaged in four-way talks with ukraine, germany and france. the normandy format in an effort to deescalate tensions in the region. let s talk about all of this with former deputy of defense for ukraine and euasia. you put it at 80%, a foregone conclusion from your perspective. why and when do you think this will happen? well, good morning, brianna.
in ukraine s capital city of kyiv. you were at the news conference with blinken and lavrov. what was your read on what they had to say? well, i think both sides, the american side and russian side, believe they got as much out of this meeting as they could. if you look at secretary of state blinken. he was preparing this meeting meticulously in the days leading up to this. the u.s. did project that it was very much in the corner of ukraine. there were certain principles the u.s. was not willing to move on at all and also showed that the u.s. was united with its allies as well. secretary of state blinken saying that he believes that right now the ball is firmly in vladimir putin s court. and he wants to see de-escalation from the russians, real de-escalation, how he put it. let s listen to some of what he had to say. we ve heard russian officials say that they have no intention of invading ukraine. in fact, mr. lavrov repeated that to me today. but, again, we re looking at
nato sent their written responses to russia s security demands and the kremlin is currently mulling that over. it s clear that the ball is now in russian president vladimir putin s court. on friday, he had a phone conversation with french president emmanuel macron that was one of the earliest signals of the russian receptiveness or lack of receptiveness. it s clear their positions are still quite far apart, although putin has yet to fully respond to that letter. but his foreign minister, sergey lavrov, said while there are secondary issues where the u.s. and russia and nato may find some common ground, on the big picture issue, whether ukraine has a path to join nato, the west and russia are still very, very far apart. nathan, thanks for that. melissa in kyiv, tell us the mood there, and also how big the disconnect with the u.s. when it comes to messaging?
i think the 15-week ban in mississippi, which bans most abortions after that point, 15 weeks, has actually got a good chance of surviving. what we don t know and what i don t think you can tell from today is whether there is enough. there are enough votes to go forward with overturning roe or casey the planned parenthood vs. casey came after roe. most think this mississippi law is going to survive scrutiny. pete: interesting. lila, let s say it did come down that way, can you provide your own assessment of where you think it may go. if it did go that way is that a win or half measure? what are your hopes. going to be hard for the court to uphold the mississippi abortion ban without doing serious damage to be roe v. wade and casey v. planned parenthood. based on the questions that were being asked by a majority of the justices, justice alito, justice kavanaugh, justice gorsuch, multiple justices, particularly alito, kavanaugh, roberts even,