ukraine's president sounds a little more optimistic about the talks — what is the message from russia? there is hope of compromise, but the question is who is going to be doing the comprising. we know that vladimir putin doesn't want ukraine tojoin nato. he wants vladimir putin doesn't want ukraine to join nato. he wants to secure a promise that it never will. he sees it as a huge security risk for russia. there are hints that ukraine might be prepared to bend on that. is that going to be enough for mr putin? he has told russians that he has gone into ukraine to defend the interests of russian speakers living interests of russian speakers living in the east of the country. vladimir putin wants the world to recognise some of those regions as independent, or independent but under russian control. he also wants the world to acknowledge that crimea, which mr putin annexed in 2014, is russian. he wants the ukraine effect to hand over some of its territory. ukraine is not willing to do that at this stage. mr putin probably wants to be able to tell russians that his so—called special military operation in