Hey everybody, we got a depressing one today because it's about war.

War, what is it good for?

Absolutely nothing.

Say it again.

War, good God, y'all.

My guest is Julia Yafi, founding partner and Washington correspondent for Puck Media.

Julia is a veteran journalist who's written for the Atlantic Monthly and the New Yorker.

Julia was born in Russia, and in addition to covering Washington, spends a lot of her time covering the war in Ukraine,

Putin's war. He is responsible for the horror that we see unfolding every day. A giant

miscalculation, of course, on Putin's part. He thought he'd invade and be in Kiev in a matter of days. We've done a few of these

podcasts on Ukraine. Frank, four of the Atlantic Monthly spoke with us right at the start of the war

on Biden's masterful leadership in putting this enormous coalition that's behind Ukraine in the place. And just when we begin

to see some potential rifts, we see these allies agree to continue to step up in the last

couple of weeks in regard to tanks, Julia, not alone in wondering where we might be in this war

if that kind of commitment of more advanced weapons had happened sooner.

Alexander Vindman, who was Director of European Affairs for the National Security Council

under the Trump administration. Of course,

he's the guy who blew the whistle on the Trump shakedown call with Zelensky. He was on with

me not such a long time ago and told me that he was optimistic about Ukraine's progress in the war

this winter. And Julia takes a more pessimistic view.

So I called Colonel Vindman after I spoke with Julia Yafi to get his take.

And Vindman told me that he continues to be optimistic in terms of Ukraine gaining territory

...