Dr. Janice Stein

The other thing that I understand from European diplomats that is happening in Russia, Vladimir Putin is a lot less enthusiastic about Donald Trump than he was when Donald Trump came to office.

He no longer is as optimistic that Trump is going to deliver a settlement that he likes on Ukraine.

And the Europeans have really succeeded there, to their credit, in interposing themselves between Trump, no matter what his inclinations are, and blunting whatever that relationship is about.

So Ukraine is no longer on the chopping block in the same way that it was.

So that's why this is a moment for Ukraine.

It's doing better on the battlefield.

It's getting money from the Europeans now that Orban is no longer in the picture and no longer able to block EU funding.

And there's less fear that we're going to see a Munich in which Ukraine is traded away.

It's a remarkable impact.

It really is remarkable.

That invasion, when Russia crossed the border, broke apart the most fundamental assumptions that we'd all made, that this was in our past, and certainly in Europe, that this was in our past.

The prone fighting and the way the revolution in the battlefield, that changed every future war, and we just had proof of it in the Gulf.

And we're seeing, you know, I'm not a big fan of the term middle powers because the middle powers are so different.

But we certainly are seeing Europeans and Asians and Saudi Arabia and others look at this and saying we can no longer rely on

We can't rely on American guarantee.

The Russians, we certainly can't rely on.

And the Chinese are standing way back, protecting their own interests.

And so there is an and when they think about what the world will look like.

they don't know the answer, but they know the old world is gone.

That nostalgia that we had in the early years right after this, we'll get over this and it'll all return to normal.