I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday, March 23rd.

Let's dive right in because we're very happy to have today former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,

William Taylor. As many of you

will remember, he became a public figure in 2019 during the first Donald Trump impeachment hearings

when Taylor testified that Trump had been pressuring President Zelensky with a collection of policy

threats and offers to get Zelensky to announce investigations into Joe Biden

and whether Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election in support of Hillary Clinton rather than Russia

in support of Trump. But there was much more to Taylor's career than that. He graduated from

West Point and served in the Vietnam War, where he earned a bronze

star and other medals. He played a leadership role in the 1990s and U.S. assistance to Afghanistan

and Afghan refugees after the Soviet occupation there ended. He was the first director of the Iraq

Reconstruction Management Office for President George W. Bush in 2004 and 2005 after the U.S. invasion there.

Under President Obama, he oversaw U.S. assistance to some key Arab nations during the Arab Spring.

He did his first stint as ambassador to Ukraine for President Bush starting in 2006 and was back again as U.S.

Charger de Fair under Trump.

And I could go on.

He's now vice president for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

And in recent appearances at Texas A&M University and elsewhere, he laid out three scenarios for how the war in Ukraine might end. We'll hear them. Ambassador Taylor, we really appreciate that you're joining us today. Welcome to WNYC.

Brian, it's great to be here. Thank you very much for having me. First of all, how surprised are you that Putin didn't just try to seize the Dombas region in eastern Ukraine

that has the Russian separatist movement, but instead is trying to take the entire country?

Right, Brian.

So he effectively already controlled that part.

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