My husband is retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vidman who was on the July 25th phone call with President Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky when President Trump may be infamous request I need you to do us a favor though.

And immediately after leaving that phone call in the White House situation room he walked to the office across the hall from his and the Eisenhower executive building and he reported the phone call as being inappropriate and wrong.

This is Sarah Stewart Holland and this is Beth Silverce. Thank you for joining us for Pantsuit Politics.

Welcome to another episode of Pantsuit Politics. We are here today to help each other and all of you process the heartbreaking developments in Ukraine.

On Wednesday before the invasion we had a conversation with Rachel Vindman, wife of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and the co-host of the suburban women problem about Russia and Ukraine and we're going to share a portion of that conversation here today as well.

And then we'll end the show talking about how we're discussing this news with our kids.

Before we get started I did want to share that my children are home from school today and I have some construction going around my house today of all day.

So if you hear some random noises that's what it is. So after the break we'll discuss the latest developments and then share our thoughts on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Hey folks it's Mark here from WTF with Mark Marin and my podcast is currently being sponsored by Amazon ads and do you know why Amazon ads is sponsoring because you're a good loyal audience and you like listening to this show.

That's a good place to put ads and with Amazon ads you can get the same kind of placement and attention for your brand or products.

Amazon ads can help you reach and connect with new audiences and all of the places they're excited to be.

Whether they're streaming the Premier League on Prime Video tuning into their creative passions on Twitch or streaming their favorite shows.

There's no end to the connections your brand can make with audiences.

Head to advertising.amazon.com to find out more.

Amazon ads your brand their world.

We look up Thursday morning to a host of news about Ukraine and we'll recap that briefly with the knowledge as we're recording here on Thursday afternoon that this situation is developing quickly is extremely fluid and

things might have changed significantly by the time you hear this episode but we want to tell you what we know now and start to think through it.

The first thing to understand is that Ukraine is under strike from land from air by sea Russian troops are coming into the country from Belarus and the North, Russia in the east and Crimea and the South.

I thought this was really helpful perspective from the dispatch they wrote on the ground in Ukrainian cities thus far the situation might best be summed up with one word lines lines to get cash out of the ATM lines to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy lines to fill up at the gas station thousands upon thousands of cars were seen stuck in traffic Thursday morning attempting to leave

and head west toward Poland and away from Russia that perspective on what people in Ukraine are doing and facing right now helped me get a better sense of what an invasion means and also lines to sign up and fight.

There was a picture in the New York Times and I'm choking up just thinking about it of a room full of adults sitting there like encodes that look like mine on cell phones that look like mine waiting for instructions on how to go defend their country.

The stress and the intensity on their faces it took my breath away you can tell that Ukraine is a country that has been dealing with Russia for a very long time and dealing with Russian aggression and violence for a very long time and there is a real era of defiance the president

...