I'm Arthur Snell, a major war is taking place on the European continent with Russia's

invasion of Ukraine. Bringing you a series of special episodes to help you understand

the crisis as it unfolds. This is Doomsday Watch.

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Hello and welcome back to Doomsday Watch. I'm delighted to be joined today by Shashank

Joshi, the defense editor of the economist and somebody who's been tracking both the

war in Ukraine as it unfolded but also the build up to the war. And he was somebody who

accurately called Putin's intentions at that time. Shash, welcome.

Arthur, hello. Thank you so much for having me. It's very good to be on.

So, Shash, this is a war that has rumbled on in ways that people have not expected the

initial expectation that the Russians would roll into Kiev. Then the Russians switching

to the Donbass and perhaps at the beginning of that there seemed to be a bit of optimism

particularly in certain bulletins here in the West that the Russian offensive in the Donbass

was also failing. But now it seems harder to say that. So what's your take on where we're

out? We're in the middle of June now. Where are we in this conflict?

You're absolutely right. I think there was a slightly heady sense a few weeks ago that

hang on, the Ukrainians are winning. They had pushed the Russians back in Kharkiv and of

...