Michael Weiss

He kind of rallied this Western coalition.

But domestically, he has mismanaged things horribly.

And he's protecting people like Yermak, who nobody likes and who has delusions of grandeur himself, political ambitions.

And also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces is somebody who is seen to be very Soviet-minded and willing to sacrifice the great and the good of Ukraine into these meat grinder campaigns that are subject to diminishing returns.

Holding small pockets of territory that a lot of Ukrainians think we should have withdrawn.

you know, tactically from here because the juice ain't worth the squeeze.

So there's a lot of stuff going on inside Ukraine.

It's not making it into the Western press as regularly as it, as it probably should be under no illusions.

Like we don't need to romanticize any country or any government.

However, and I will, I emphasize this point, um,

The reason that Ukraine will survive, the reason Ukraine has survived, the reason Ukraine is a struggle worth supporting, it's not about who's in the presidential administration or who's the defense minister or who's running the army.

The country has a very vibrant civil society.

It has a very strong kind of democratic instinct.

When they feel like they're being railroaded or

deceived or manipulated or stolen from, even in the midst of war, even when Shahid drones are raining down on them or congenial missiles are raining down on them and they have rolling blackouts and their kids have to study math by candlelight, they take to the streets and they tell their government, no.

This is not like Russia, where that kind of happened in the last few years.

But you notice, we don't see anti-war demonstrations in Russia.

We don't see people demanding Putin stop.

Russian sentiment of the war alternates between indifference and nationalistic patriotic fervor.

Keep going.