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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House.

And I'm Mara Liesen, National Political Correspondent.

Russia appears ready to invade Ukraine. At least that's what signs seem to point to at this moment.

To help us sort through all of this, NPR's Joanna Cakissus is in Keeve.

Hey Joanna. Hello Ayesha. Hello Mara.

Thank you so much for joining us, especially I know you're in Keeve and talking to people on the ground.

But before we get to that, I want to talk to you about the talks that are going on at the very high level.

You have Russia still demanding that former Soviet countries, including Ukraine, be barred from joining NATO,

which is a longstanding military alliance in Europe.

And then Russia also has some other demands that are basically non-starters from Europe and from the US.

Joanna, it seems like right now the US has gone back and forth on whether an invasion was imminent.

It had said it was imminent, then it walked that back.

But then at the very end of last week, it just seemed like everything shifted.

And the US was telling citizens to get out immediately, started saying they would move some embassy staff.

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