Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about

Ukraine, NATO, Russia, and Trump. Back in July at the summit, NATO indicated that Ukraine's

eventual membership was irreversible. Zelensky is showing a little bit of that statesmanship

and strategic thinking that we saw

early on when he rallied the West behind him. He's asking NATO to protect areas that are not

currently in Russian hands. That seems like kind of an odd request, but it's not. It looks like he's setting the stage.

Zelensky is now indicating that NATO protection could put an end to what he called the hot

stage of the war. His idea is basically that a, quote, NATO umbrella of protection be extended

over the areas Ukraine fully controls

as the basis for a ceasefire, but that NATO membership be offered to the whole of Ukraine,

even if that membership comes at a later date. The hope is that this will help Ukraine

use diplomatic means to get its territory back through negotiation.

There might be another reason this is being suggested in the way it is.

Zelensky is putting it out there that he is willing to engage in negotiations.

This is important with the new U.S. administration coming in.

Trump selected a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. The selection of a special envoy seems to

indicate that Trump won't be getting a ceasefire in 24 hours as he claimed he would. But that envoy has talked in the past about how the

U.S. could attempt to broker a ceasefire and get them to the table. The plan was to tell them to get

to the table. And if Ukraine said no, reduce U.S. support. If Russia said no, increase U.S. support to Ukraine.

Zelensky has set the table, basically saying, we'll freeze the lines where they are for right now,

as long as we have NATO protection. The conventional wisdom is that Putin will not like this suggestion. If he

doesn't agree, how will the Trump administration read that? Trump and Putin have their weird

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