This is CBS. I on the world. I'm John Batchel with my friend and colleague, Mary Kissel,

Executive Vice President Stevenson, Incorporated, former senior advisor to the Secretary of State.

Ukraine. Over these last days, President of the United States giving permission to Ukraine to use

the attack him's weapon system at long reign.

In response, Mr. Putin made announcements that the Duma had lowered the threshold, so-called,

of use of nuclear weapons in contest with NATO.

Mary, this looks like escalation.

To what end?

I think Vladimir Putin is sending the incoming Trump administration a message that he has deterred President Biden, and he intends to maintain a strong hand, even as President Trump and his team want to push him to the negotiating table.

And whether or not that ship cutting cables, that Chinese ship was working in concert with Russia,

we just don't know.

That's not public information, as you say.

But certainly the incoming Trump team faces a far more complicated and dangerous situation,

whether in the Middle East or in Ukraine, because the Biden team

eroded U.S. deterrence and U.S. enemies like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, have started

working together in earnest publicly. They were doing it a bit in the past, but it was always hidden.

But now it's not even hidden.

That's how confident they feel.

So it's a very complex environment, and I think very different to the environment externally

that President Trump inherited in 2016.

There is a great deal of talk that Mr. Trump in office will seek to move to a negotiated settlement in Ukraine,

the conditions of which have been floating around for months, years, perhaps.

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