Frozen colnflict. we are in basically an attrition stage of the fight in eastern ukraine. i think that s an important term because it does not mean stalemate in a way that ends the fighting, right? the russians are continuing to try to push forward. they re not having much success in part because they have not recovered from their initial failures in this war to actually marshal a coherent operational, you know, plan. whereas the ukrainians are actually beginning to gain some momentum in a counteroffensive and are able to stitch together some of these tactical attacks into what could be a wider campaign. does a putin who is cornered and not making the gains he wanted at the speed he wanted and in effect, losing in your view, is he more likely to take a catastrophic step like the use, for instance, of a battlefield nuclear weapon? it s an important question and this is where the nato unity ask deterrence really comes into the play. i think the fact that we haven t seen putin try y
War. in fact, he s on track in my view to lose this war. whether he will accept that loss is a different story, and i think so far we still see him imagining that he can conquer ukraine and eliminate ukraine as a nation and as a people. that s not a reality, but i think it does in some respects pose an opportunity for ukraine because it means he s miscalculating. he s been miscalculating since the start of the war by thinking he can break ukrainian will to resist and i think expecting he can do more than sustain his current gains is another miscalculation. break nato unity, break eu unity, all those proved to be miscalculations. tell me your view of the view on the eastern front right now because officials i speak to say russia s attempting to punch through and specifically to break supply lines there and also to attempt to surround ukrainian forces in that area. when they do in general, ukrainian forces strike back, have had some success pushing them back. what is your sense of is t