Welcome to the President's Inbox, a CFR podcast about the foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

I'm Jim Lindsay, Director of Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This week's topic is Year 3 of the Ukraine War.

With me to discuss where the war between Russia and Ukraine is headed in its third year are Miriam Elder and Carla Ann Robbins.

Miriam is the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council.

She worked as a foreign correspondent in Russia from 2002 to 2003, and again from

2006 to 2013, reporting first for the Moscow Times, and then for The Guardian, where she served

as the Moscow bureau chief. Miriam also has been the founding world editor at BuzzFeed News and an executive

editor at Vanity Fair. Carla is a senior fellow at the council where she focuses on national security issues.

She is also the Marks faculty director of the Master of International Affairs Program and clinical

professor of national security

at Brute College's Mark School of Public in International Affairs. Carla was the chief

diplomatic correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, where she was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for

her reporting. She was later Deputy Editorial Page Editor at the New York

Times. She co-hosts CFR's podcast, The World Next Week, which I encourage you to listen to if you don't

already subscribe. Merriam and Carla, thank you very much for joining me on the president's inbox.

Thanks, Jim. Good to be here.

Carla, if we may, I will begin with you. Saturday marks the second anniversary of the second

Russian invasion of Ukraine. We shouldn't forget that the first phase of the war began in 2014

when Russia seized Crimea and Russian-backed separatists

seized parts of Ukraine's eastern Donbos region. Where would you say the fighting stands as year

three of the war begins? The news isn't great, but it's also really important to remember, as you said, that

...