I'm John Batchel, with my good colleague, Mary Kistel, Executive Vice President

Stevenson, Incorporated.

And we've been looking at the State Department and the foreign departments, the foreign ministries, of many states in conflict.

It's not all one conflict.

There are negotiations everywhere. I go to the negotiation that's sent to be ongoing with Russia and the United States and NATO and

Kiev, Ukraine. I may have the location wrong, and they keep moving themselves around,

but the aim here is to resolve the unfinished business of the 28, 24, 20 point presentation. I'm told'm told Mary that it comes down to one word,

territory. The territory of Donbass that is not under the control of the Russian attacker.

Ukraine does not believe that it is commonsensical to surrender that territory to the aggressor.

Russia is adamant, has been since the first territory.

And there's no movement here in winter, with the Russians clearly resolved to continue to

terrorize the civilians by attacking the heating and electricity. There was another attack

in these last hours. Kiefe is dark again. So where does this talk go, Mary? Putin claims he'll

come to the table, but then he repeats himself for three years. I mean, the Ukrainians have been

willing to come to the table for years now and make major concessions.

The problem is Putin.

And I think rewarding him for his brutality and unprovoked aggression would only invite more of it in the future.

We saw that in Georgia and his incursions into Syria, Ukraine, Libya, parts of Africa. I mean,

it's just a really long list. And so I don't know what sort of security guarantee could be provided

to the Ukrainians short of joining NATO that would make them truly secure. And that's,

that's apparently what's being discussed. It could be that the Ukrainians are exhausted and want a break in the fighting,

but I don't think there's any belief in Kiev or or elsewhere in the region that Putin will

...