from w nyc studios it's brian lair a daily politics podcast it's friday june third we'll talk about the war in

ukraine now which many people see is entering a decisive phase and also about the longer range prospects

for U.S. support if the war drags on with the risk that Americans could lose interest as

outcomes become murky, as other news stories rise to the top of people's agendas.

And that all could help Russia, especially if the Republicans gain control of Congress

in November because the Trump wing of the party supports Putin. We'll talk about this now with

Julia Yafi, founding partner and Washington correspondent for the journalism site Puck News. She has

an article called Putin's D.C. waiting game. Julie, always good to have you on. Welcome

back to WN. NYC. Hi, Brian. Thank you for having me. And before we get to Putin's D.C. waiting

game and that longer term picture, first on the short term, I'm reading from the Washington Post here

from two days ago. U.S. military officials have assessed that the coming weeks could bring

a decisive phase in the war. General Mark Millie, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the next

several weeks will be very, very critical for the outcome of this battle that's shaping up, unquote.

So how much is that a consensus opinion and how much does it look like that to you as a journalist following the war that the next few weeks are going to be decisive in some respect?

I'm hearing that they could be decisive, but that it could just be maybe the end of another phase and that the war will drag on for quite a while.

I'm not hearing as much in D.C. about a kind of coming of an end to this. What I'm hearing is people

readying for a longer, much longer slog in Ukraine. Because it seems like,

I mean, you're already hearing noises from Moscow that should they win in the Donbos,

they're going to try again for Kiev. And I can't see that taking a short time either.

Just a few weeks. Yeah. And President Biden on Tuesday confirmed that the

United States is sending medium-range, advanced rocket systems to Ukraine after officials

they requested such weapons. I'm still reading from that Washington Post article, I should say,

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