Matthew Sussex

And now increasingly, Ukraine does have cards and it seems to have the advantage.

And what we've seen is that Trump's ability to exercise influence over Ukraine as a result has completely declined.

And the Ukrainians don't take him seriously.

They don't take his negotiators seriously.

And they view him effectively as a Russian proxy.

What's worse than that is the other way that Trump could put pressure on Ukraine is via Europe.

And the Europeans have come to the same conclusion.

That's right.

The economic damage is really significant in that you have runaway inflation.

The reports are around about 6%, 7%.

It's probably about double that.

Interest rates are up to 23%, I believe.

And Russians simply aren't spending any money.

So you have low engagement in the economy.

You have stagflation.

So the economic situation is getting really dire.

And when you put that together with the losses that Russia's had at the front, about 1.4 million casualties, of which at least 400,000 would be dead,

that is effectively the next generation of Russians that has been decimated.

One in 25, one in 25 Russians has been killed or wounded by this war.

Look, I think that when you look at support in Putin's Russia, it's not necessarily the honest opinion of people when they respond to polling questions, when the government has the ability to make your life really difficult.