I'm Hana Rosen, and this is Radio Atlantic.

My colleagues, Atlantic staff writer Ann Applebaum, an editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg,

just got back from Ukraine.

They returned with a sense that something big was going to happen.

And now it seems to be starting.

This week, it looks like Russia has taken Bakhmut, a city where the fighting has been

vicious and sustained.

Although the Ukrainians haven't surrendered yet.

At the same time, there's been a raid inside Russia by anti-Putin forces.

Now, I have to admit, I've become a little numb to this war.

I'm just not following it as closely as I used to.

So I got Ann in the studio to bring this moment into focus.

Alright, Ann, I think maybe let's start with the attacks behind the Russian border.

What do we know about what happened?

We know that a small group of people describing themselves as free Russian forces crossed

the border from Ukraine into Russia near a city called Belgorod and occupied several villages.

They stayed for some period of time, so it wasn't just that they crossed over for an hour

and came back.

And they described themselves as wanting to use this as a way to provoke Putin or unseat

Putin.

It's really hard for me to tell how big a deal this is in the context of the war.

Because partly you're describing it as almost like a political stunt.

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