All right, Alexander, let's do a military update in the conflict in Ukraine.

What is the situation on the front lines at the moment, Alexander?

I'm hearing a lot of caldrons are forming, or at least a lot of cities and regions

are surrounded, I guess, you can say, on three sides. So it hasn't quite

closed. The cauldron is not quite closed yet. I don't know if the Russians wanted to close,

but a lot of areas and a lot of regions have the Russians pretty much on three sides with one

opening left across the entire front line.

So what's the situation?

Well, indeed.

Now, you're absolutely correct.

The thing to understand about every one of these cauldrons is that they are basically constructed,

they're basically developing around fortified positions that the Ukrainians

have. And to repeat a point that we made in our recent program, the overall story is that the

Russians have now reached the farthest last big defense line that the Ukrainians have in Donbass.

This line of the three big towns, Slaviansk, Kramatosk, Konstantinovka,

and then a little further distance away, this Pakarovs.

So the Russians are now pushing against this line.

If they break through, well, there's this notional sort of Ikin line that the Ukrainians supposedly are trying to build to the west of it.

Nobody, I think, believes that the Ukrainians can hold the Russians along this line.

Even the Ukrainians themselves are now admitting as much.

So this is the last big defense line that the Ukrainians have left west of the Dnieper. If the Russians break through, then, as I said, they will reach the center. They will reach the Dnieper. If the Russians break through, then as I said, they will reach the center,

that will reach the Dnieper in central Ukraine. We've discussed in many programs. What a mortal blow.

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