Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I must be happy to cover the White House.

And I'm Frank O'Rideoniaz. I also cover the White House.

I'm Ryan Lucas in Levy, Ukraine.

And the time is currently 2.22 pm Eastern on Monday, March 14th. And this is day 19 of

Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And so far, nearly 600 civilian fatalities have been confirmed

from the violence in just the last couple of weeks, including an American journalist.

That's the official tally from the United Nations, but the true death toll is expected

to be much higher. Officials from Ukraine and Russia are ostensibly still in talks, but

those discussions show very little signs of progress. Russia insists the invasion will

continue until all of its goals have been accomplished.

Right before we really get into the substance of what I want to ask you about, where are

you right now? Well, you may actually hear a fair amount of noise behind me. And that's

because I'm currently sitting in the the bomb shelter of where a team of NPR reporters

are staying. There's a guy over there with a guitar, playing some music. They have people

sitting on the floor on yoga mats that got computers out. I'm sitting next to a Christmas

tree for no clear reason. But yeah, we have had a lot of air raid sirens in the past couple

days in Levyv, actually from 2.30 to 7.30 this morning, we were down in the air raid shelter

again, sleeping on the tile floor. So that's kind of what life looks like here in Levyv

right now. And Levyv, frankly, is one of the safest places in Ukraine at the moment.

So Ryan, you last joined us on the podcast a week ago. And a lot has changed since last

Monday. I mean, I'm sure in some ways the the conflict, the war, it feels like some

things haven't changed. But walk us through what's changed in this last week.

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