All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening in Ukraine.

And let's start with the situation on the front lines.

What is going on in the conflict in Ukraine?

Well, the situation continues to be what it has been since October,

which is that the Russians have the initiative,

that they're gaining more ground, and Ukraine is taking more and more losses.

Now, saying it in that way might imply that, you know, we're getting more of the same.

But that doesn't give a sense of the fact that the quality, if you like, of the news is changing.

Firstly, Ukrainian losses are spiking.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, and I think this is probably a fairly reliable

guesstimate of Ukrainian losses.

Ukraine lost 55,000 men killed and wounded last month in June, which is a record.

And I think that's probably true. The Ukrainian army is apparently becoming increasingly demoralized. We're getting more and more

reports about statements from Ukrainian military commanders and soldiers talking in that way,

that they are increasingly understanding that Ukraine cannot win the war and that they're

starting to lose hope and belief in the cause that they are fighting for and that is causing

Ukrainian troops to withdraw in various places and to refuse orders to attack.

And the Russians are continuing to get stronger. And over the last week or so, since I think we did our last update,

you could see this on the front lines. So if we go to Kharkov region, the Russians have

now broken through decisively in the northern, in the city in Kharkov, in Volchansk.

There was a lot of fighting around the aggregate plant and the high-rise buildings and all of those things we've

been hearing all about that for many weeks. And then suddenly we learned that all of these places

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