Mike Baker

Kiev's assessment appears to be the more accurate one, as those talks concluded Saturday without any sign of compromise by Moscow on core issues, including territory, even as officials emphasized the importance of keeping the process alive.

Regarding Russia's air campaign, Ukrainian officials said Saturday's attack represents one of the largest coordinated strikes on Kyiv in recent weeks, compounding damage from earlier attacks this month.

As we discussed on Friday's bulletin, a January 9th strike already forced Kyiv's mayor to urge residents to leave the city if possible.

It's a warning that led to hundreds of thousands temporarily fleeing the capital.

Energy executives are now warning that the situation is edging closer to what they describe as a humanitarian emergency, particularly for elderly residents and those unable to relocate.

Water pumping stations, public transit, and hospitals remain operational for now, but only through backup systems and use of rolling outages.

Now, while talks continue on paper, Saturday's Russian strikes reinforced a central concern for Kyiv and its allies, that Russia is using peace talks as a distraction while escalating pressure on civilians to gain leverage on the battlefield and to stack the deck in their favor for any future negotiations.

And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin, or Early Evening Bulletin, as it were, for Monday, the 26th of January.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com.

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I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow.

Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

It's Monday, the 26th of January.

Welcome to the President's Daily Brief.

I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

And yes, if you said to yourself, looks like Mike's back on the road, you'd be right.

Coming to you this morning from some nondescript airport somewhere.

All right, let's get briefed.

First up, new reports out of Iran suggest that the regime may have deployed chemical agents against protesters, raising serious questions about how far Tehran is willing to go to crush dissent.