All right, Alexander, let's do an update on the situation in Ukraine.

We can talk about what is happening in Kupyansk, in the town of Sinkovka.

We can talk about what is happening in the southern direction.

Perhaps you may want to talk about Rabatino and what's going on there. And we have Zelensky

traveling around various European countries trying to acquire Gripids, F-16s, S-400s, because he's got a new

grain corridor where he says he can get grain to the countries that

needed the most, which means the European Union. And then we have, what else do we have?

And then do we have the collective West media? They're putting out a lot of articles about how the situation

on the front with the big counteroffensive looks very grim, even though they continue to

tell us that it's a stalemate. It's grim, but it's a stalemate. What are your thoughts? Where

should we begin? Well, let's talk about the situation

on the battlefronts and there's two basic places where things are going on. The first one and the,

I think the big one, is in the north, around Kupiansk. This is a town of about 25,000 people,

at least before the war. It was the capital of the Russian-controlled territory in Kharkov region,

which the Russians occupied, captured in February 2022. They held Kupiansk and neighboring towns

like Isium and Balaklea until September last year.

And then last year, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive in this area,

which we both very well remember,

in which Ukraine was able to capture these places very quickly

over the space of about two weeks,

though it must be said at the cost of heavy losses

and against nonetheless relatively light Russian resistance.

...