俄拟冬季前升级对基辅攻击，和谈框架失效

Just tell us what more we know about these escalation plans. It's it's an amazing scoop, this. Yes. I mean, essentially, Vladimir Putin's, government has come to the conclusion. The Kremlin has come to the conclusion that there's really no mileage for them at the moment in peace talks. All the frameworks in which they held negotiations have more or less stalled or collapsed. And they've gone back to war. Essentially, they're intending to escalate attacks on Kyiv, particularly on critical infrastructure on the, leading up to winter, so things like energies, and essential services.

And they're looking, to ramp up the pressure on Ukraine because they think that that's the best way that they're going to achieve their war aims to force Ukraine into some kind of submission. It has to be said that that's a view that they've taken for four and a half years, and Ukraine has disproved that consistently. But, the Russian view, I think, is that they see that Ukraine is more exposed than it was because it has a lack of air defense missiles, and now is an opportunity for them, particularly at the moment to to launch missile attacks, ramp up the pressure, attack Ukraine's infrastructure and economy, and see if that produces better results than negotiations that they think are now going nowhere.

So I mentioned the Wall Street Journal reporting that the CIA chief's surprise Moscow trip was to deliver this warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries. If we do get an escalation, Tony, how prepared is Europe? Yes. That's a very good question because there have been a rising number of what's called hybrid incidents across member states in the European Union and NATO, places like the Baltics, Poland, but also places like Germany.

And European nations have been very cautious in their wording. They've basically attributed this to sort of foreign interference or foreign power without pointing the finger directly at Russia. And partly, I think it was that's because they know that that would then require them to up the ante and make some kind of response. The fact that the CIA director traveled all the way to Moscow is quite rare for, the CIA to consider something so important that they send the director in person, to deliver that message is an indication, I think, of the rising seriousness and the tensions along the border areas between Russia and NATO.

And, if that report is correct and that message was delivered, then it's another signal really that NATO states are are trying to get more muscular in their response in order to deter Russia from continuing this kind of campaign.