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Hello and welcome to a special Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots.

I'm joined by Sophia Gaston, director of the British Foreign Policy Group and James

Vesife.

The situation in Ukraine is getting more serious by the day.

James, in your Times column this week, you say that it's just a sign of what

Europe has to get used to. Yeah, I think America, for America, Europe is no longer the principal

theatre. This is why it is not the Cold War all over again. America is now most concerned

for Asia and the competition with China. And that, I think Vladimir Putin, who is a great,

I think he's more of an opportunist than a strategist. He saw the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He saw how the Biden administration went easy on Nord Stream 2. And he said, right, let's take this

Afghan logic that the US is now not, doesn't want to be distracted,

wants to concentrate on China, doesn't want to look at other issues, and let's put some pressure

on Ukraine and see what happens.

Now, Biden hasn't done nothing.

He has made clear that American troops wouldn't be sent to Ukraine to fight, but he has sent

3,000 US troops to natives eastern flank. They have sent a bunch of lethal sent to Ukraine to fight, but he has sent 3,000 US troops to NATO's eastern flank.

They have sent a bunch of lethal aid to Ukraine, and they are involved in quite intense

diplomacy to try and get a kind of properly set of sanctions that would deter Putin from acting.

But I think that Europe has to face up to the reality that America interest in Europe

is waning.

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