I'm John Batch with my colleague and friend Gregory Copp of Defense and Foreign Affairs.

The Reuters headline, Russia pounds Ukrainian energy facilities before peace talk.

The capital, Keefe, and Ukraine's second biggest city, Karkiv, are said to be in the Russian target zone.

What is puzzling about this is that we were told last week by the President of the United States during before a cabinet meeting that he had an agreement with Putin, the Kremlin, Moscow for a ceasefire over firing barrages at the infrastructure, the heat and light for large cities, including

Keefe and Kharkiv.

That is not the case.

The Reuters headline says we're going to put freezing temperatures and darkness on the

Ukrainian people, not the soldiers, the people, before we talk peace.

Gregory, the information I've had this last week is discouraging.

For example, the 28 or 24 or 20 point plan that's been ballied about by Whitkoff for weeks now

comes down to this. Russia demands the part of the Donbass that does not now possess militarily.

Russia demands that there be no guaranteeing peacekeeping force in Ukraine after the end of

hostilities.

Russia demands that it continues to control Zaporizia, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and necessary to heat

and power the Donbass that Russia demands. All of these demands have not changed at all since

2022 and are not indicating they're going to change. So what is this round of peace talks, but more, what do they

call it, a talk fest? Thank you. Well, I think what the Russians have discovered is that the

troops, which, the Ukrainian troops, which are tied down on the front with the Russians aren't going to be the

decisive factor in forcing any change from President Zelensky. The only force which is going to do

that is putting pressure on the government itself, and that comes from the distress

in the public sector.

And that's what they're doing right now.

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