I'm John Batchel with my colleague, Mary Kissel, Executive Vice President Stevens,

Incorporated, former senior advisor to the Secretary of State.

Nearly three years, Mary, the Biden administration has rationed weaponry and commitment and money

to Keefe, to defend itself from the Russian aggression.

Mr. Biden leaves office with no clarity whatsoever.

Mr. Trump is talking about meeting with Mr. Putin, or Mr. Putin's talking about meeting

with Mr. Trump.

It depends on what I remember of the latest reporting.

None of this is fact yet, but there is a sense that the Ukraine war has exhausted Europe,

exhausted Russia, exhausted the U.S., and needs to have some finish. What do you measure that

Mr. Biden is leaving Mr. Trump, and what do you measure Mr. Trump can do about it?

Well, he leaves a war in progress,

a war that could have been, I think, one much earlier on the Ukrainian side had the Biden team supported Keith. And that was not their instinct.

Remember, the first offer was to give Zelensky a ride out of town and to cave, essentially,

to appease Putin, not to help the people of Ukraine, who obviously are the victims here.

I think he leaves a Europe that is rudderless that, you know, is losing its resolve

to help the Ukrainians. And I think that he, you know, has a difficult set of counterparts here

to negotiate with, given that Vladimir Putin hasn't felt much pressure

from the Biden team. The sanctions regime that was put in place obviously did not tank

the Russian economy. Russia just went off and found new markets for its goods and new partners in

China and Iran, which are large economies.

So I think the Trump team comes in and has to ask, what is the U.S. national interest, first and foremost.

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