Even members of the Progressive Caucus, I don't know if I should name names, but in one place where I was having an event and we went to visit this member afterwards and we asked to take a picture with her. We had a sign that all it said was negotiations. It didn't even have the word to pray to me.

And she looked down at it and said, oh my god, we really want to help me in trouble. Don't you?

It's a real disconnect between what's happening on the ground and Ukraine, the needs for us, talks, what's happening in the global community, especially in the global south and the lack of an opening for real discussions among members of our Congress and of course members of the White House. Now I would say that there also is a big, much more clear about what's going on.

And they recognize that this counteroffensive in Ukraine is not making progress that's going to change things on the ground. They recognize there's a stalemate. They recognize it's a war of attrition.

And yet you don't hear this from people who are constantly handing over blank checks for continuing the war and you don't hear it from the Biden administration itself.

I'll explain to listeners that if you hear overhead speakers in the background, it's because media is calling in from the airport because she's just returning from travels, including to Ukraine.

So perhaps with that perspective, you can give us a sense of what's going on on the ground and the messages that we are not hearing about the status of the conflict here in the US.

Well, certainly being in Ukraine, people are very much and for good reason, hating the invaders, the Russians, healing like they want to recover every inch of territory back.

They don't want to talk about negotiations that want to talk about more weapons and winning the war.

And I totally understand that. I mean, there were funerals going on every single day. There are rows and rows of fresh and brave inside every major city.

This is horrific and it's understandable the position of both Ukrainians, but I also want to say that those who advocate for peace talks have been incredibly repressed.

There is no room inside Ukraine for openly discussing options other than victory. And yet we are not in Ukraine. We are in the United States.

And we understand that to stop this slaughter in Ukraine, it really needs to be a focus on negotiations because the Russians are not going to stop.

This war is not going to end on the battlefield unless it moves into a more extensive war or into a nuclear war.

And those of us who want to see an end to this slaughter in Ukraine, I think have to step back and look and say, where is this going?

And when we see that it's only going to become worse and worse for the Ukrainian people and perhaps for people over Europe, that we have to figure out how we're going to push both sides to the negotiating table.

I think that the Chinese have done a really good job in trying to push that since they have leverage with both Russia and with Ukraine.

I think the Pope is pushing hard. We see six leaders from African nations recently traveling to both Ukraine and to Russia.

And yet what people tell me as I travel around all over Europe and Eastern Europe is that this isn't going to end until Biden says that it's time for negotiations.

That the Chinese can really put pressure on Putin as can others, but until the US administration says, OK, it's time to start the negotiations that this war is going to keep going.

And that's why we get back to the issue, Rihanna, in terms of how can we build up this movement?

We've got this coalition called peace in Ukraine.

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