Anne Applebaum

And in Russia, they've lost a million people.

And they're losing the equivalent of Vietnam every two months.

And so it cannot last indefinitely.

And there is grumbling in the ranks that you can hear that bubbles up on Telegram.

And there's clearly some discontent in the elite.

And people in Russia want the war to be over.

I mean, of course, they're scared to talk about it too much.

But it is not sustainable indefinitely.

And I'm still convinced that a hard line, clear statement from the transatlantic alliance and the rest of the democratic world would have ended this war already.

Had the election of Trump been followed by that, it would be over.

But Trump gave Putin the feeling that he could continue, that there was something to be gained.

But Ukrainians I talked to are kind of sanguine.

They're like, okay, we're going to just keep fighting.

And there was a huge missile attack that hit Western Ukraine yesterday.

It's a way of saying, next time I'll put warheads on it.

I mean, that's how it's interpreted.

The rationale he gave this time was that it was a response to the Ukrainians trying to bomb his residence, which is something that we know didn't happen.

So he's created the fake excuse that allows him to make this response, which is pretty par for the course.

I mean, now we've all got used to politicians lying and using their lies to justify violence.

And