set a proposal for ukraine to become a neutral country with its own armed forces could be a compromise. today, a kremlin spokesperson said ukrainian negotiators were "in no rush." ukraine's biggest utilities said 1.3 million people were without power, and the military said russian strikes continue on densely populated residential areas. the expanded arsenal that the u.s. is sending to ukraine includes 100 armed drones. bloomberg has learned the drones are too-launched from the ground and plunge into their targets. the system called switchblade is made by aero environment. the president has also promised thousands of antitank and antiaircraft missiles. he will be replaced by public health expert ashish ja.

he spent much of the time just reading vaccines as well as treatments and tests and protective equipment. in china, the latest covid outbreak appears to be easing. authorities reported the lowest number of cases so far this week. in the epicenter of the latest outbreak, infections have dropped from recent highs since the province was locked down on monday. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ matt: good afternoon from new york where it is 1:00.

5:00 in london 2:00 a.m. in hong , kong. i'm matt miller. welcome to bloomberg markets. here are the top stories we are following from around the world. the bank of england joins the federal reserve and hiking rates. how global central banks are fighting inflation and the ramifications of the ukraine war. and crypto investing. dan morehead has been sounding the alarm on the bubbles created by the fed. are some of those about to pop? and i will speak with the audi ceo about what the russian invasion means for the luxury carmaker's supply chain. and he will tell us what he expects to see in terms of the automotive business returning to some sense of normality. a quick check of what is happening in the markets. we have been bouncing back and forth between gains and losses. the s&p 500 up .4%. the two year yield coming down as investors -- the 10-year

yield coming down as investors by the debt. -- buy the debt. we did see the 5 and 10 invert. 3's were just in-line. the bloomberg u.s. dollar index, 10 points down below 1200. it has come off substantially. nymex crude coming up substantially. 102.23 a barrel. commodities are being watched closely in today's session. as i mentioned, the bank of england is the focus of what caught my eye for today. money markets are no longer betting on a 50 basis point increase during the bank's upcoming meeting, according to data we are seeing. the shift comes after none of the nine-member committee voted today for a move of that size. we even had one dovish dissent.

the bank of england's hike comes one day after the fed hike to rates, where we had a hawkish dissent. let's bring in simona mocuta of state street global advisors. two rate rises, each by 25 basis points, but i believe jim bullard on the fed dissented because he wanted to see more. simona: two similar outcomes but the message from the hikes was different. what you saw was an example of, the closer you are to the war in ukraine as a policymaker, the more cautious you have to be in terms of what policy trade-offs you are making. of course you need to fight inflation, but you need to be mindful, the closer you are to the conflict what the negative impact on growth is. this is an external shock that worsened trade policies for everybody. the fed is less concerned

because they are further removed, more energy self-reliant. more. matt: is inflation hitting consumers in the u.k. and in europe as hard as it is hitting consumers in the u.s.? simona: in fact, europe as a whole has a higher dependence to russian energy sources. you have seen considerable increases, prices are going up substantially more than in the u.s. the reality is it is not central banks that can fight this. you are starting to see a fiscal response, which is exactly where the response can come from in the short-term, to try and alleviate the hit to consumer purchasing power. not all the measures we expect to see have been announced yet. we think more will come on this front, but again, this is a supply shock, not in the range

of possibilities for central banks to really fight. matt: we saw a huge fiscal support from the u.s. during covid, much bigger than what we saw out of europe because they already had certain safety nets in place that made it less necessary, let's say. do you think we will see more fiscal help for european consumers during disinflation shock? simona: i think so, and i hope so. we are not talking about the same type of broadbrush fiscal stimulus measures that were necessary during covid. i think we are talking about much more targeted and also time restricted help. perhaps three months or six months of policy that can be reviewed based on what market conditions are down the line. but i do expect to see more coming. matt: what do you think of the right moves we have seen today? the u.s. curve came pretty close

to inverting. 2s, 10s, only about 18 basis points away at the narrowest. 3s, 5s, 7s, treating even higher than the 10 year. is that a situation that is indicative of an impending recession? simona: it certainly is a bit concerning. going back to the fed's own forecast yesterday, in the context of substantially more policy tightening, we see little in their forecast to signal an impact on the real economy. even though i always consider myself a glass half-full kind of person, i have to ask myself, in the last 5, 10 years, when has that idea actually come to pass? i do think there are risks to the outlook given the path the fed has laid out. i don't think this necessarily has to happen.

the fed also has the ability, humbleness in the policy response. perhaps in the third or fourth quarter they could come back and reassess, should we see evidence, as i think we will see, of slowing growth. perhaps some of these rate hikes, not all of them, will come to fruition. matt: it looks like the german and u.k. curves are much steeper than the u.s. does that mean they have more room to run in terms of rate rises? simona: it is an interesting question. i think in the short term, i would say it is a more complicated tightening path for the ecb given the growth outlook. on a more medium-term, the combination -- as a result of covid, more because of the war in ukraine -- you'll see more injection of fiscal stimulus.

more intense use of fiscal policy in the broader mix. that could be positive to potential growth on a medium-term basis. perhaps that is something markets are contemplating. probably hard to tell exactly why but i would not say necessarily that the ecb has more of a green light to hike. matt: great to get some time with you, simona mocuta. chief economist over at state street global advisors. coming up, we are speaking to microeconomic investor dan morehead about how crypto assets could be a hedge as a bubble in debt markets appears, maybe even top. stay with us. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. longtime macro and crypto investor dan morehead has been sounding an alarm about bubbles created by the federal reserve. dan is the founder and ceo of pantera capital, an investment firm focused exclusively on bitcoin and other digital currencies. he joins us alongside sonali

basak. let me start by asking you about the fed. mohamed el-erian says they painted themselves in a corner, a difficult position to be in because they have to grapple with possibly double digit in place in june -- inflation soon and they have a $9 trillion balance sheet to unwind. what do you think? dan: when i was starting intruding, the fed would act in real time to reality. now they have this forward-looking guidance thing where they look at quarters two years. the amount of inflation, you are saying might be double digits. the way they used to report inflation, not a great indication of housing prices, already 10.7% year on year. inflation is like it was in the 1970's. but the difference is the fed was fighting inflations. rates are now only 25 basis

points. they should be two or 3% by now. sonali: what about the unwind of the balance sheet? investors are having a troubling time figure out what that means for liquidity. do you think they will be caught off guard? matt: if they even do it. dan: everything has changed a lot. the fed didn't used to buy long-term bonds and did not manipulate the mortgage market the way they are now. they have bought $9 trillion worth of mortgage bonds and driven the prices up 15 trillion higher than where they would be at their average real rate. there is a bubble in the bond market. there is only one buyer, the federal reserve. no rational economic investor would buy a bond that yields 2% when inflation is 7.9%. that is a losing trade. being short about market is the most asymmetric. i have seen in bitcoin since

2013. matt: it is weird that bitcoin has not done better. a lot of investors would have gone in at the beginning of 2020 because you saw what was happening. but why not keep buying it through this point? dan: it's a great question and you are right. the intuition is it should be doing better than it is. there is a short-term correlation between bitcoin and the s&p 500 in very stressful times. it is highly correlated throughout 71 days, and then it breaks down. i believe that is the case here. when the s&p gets crushed, bonds get crushed, you have to crush everything. but when the dust settles, people will realize with rates going higher, and fed funds rates are going to five or something. that has to hurt bond prices, probably stock prices. and then anything with discounted cash flows like real estate gets hurt.

cryptocurrencies are independent of interest rates. matt: real estate getting hurt is a painful trade considering how many americans have been paying inflated prices. dan: that is the problem, the fed is driving mortgages artificially below where they should be and is daring someone not to buy a house. if prices are going up 19% across america, and you can borrow at 2%, you kind of have to do that. that is why the economy is overheated. sonali: most credit investors look at bitcoin and have that problem, that it doesn't have cash flows, so how do i get into it? you have made a lot of money outside of bitcoin into other defi projects. how do you think about that in the next year amidst this big selloff? dan: there is this perception that it is hard to value cryptocurrencies. it is basically econ 101 supply and demand. every two years, 10 times more

people use crypto than the past year, and that's been going on for a decade. every two years, the price of crypto has gone up 10x. within the next five or 10 years, almost everyone with a smartphone will use cryptocurrencies. if that is true, it will be a higher price. matt: doesn't go up 10x every year in the future? feels like it has been stuck at 40,000 for six months already. is it going to be 400,000 in 2025? dan: i think it will be some number like that. all the use cases that are rolling out, people using them. now institutional investors are investing in the space. taking it from 10 or 20 basis points two maybe 8% of their portfolio in the future. matt: does it have to be bitcoin? we were talking on tuesday, our

new show. he was saying he was impressed by the success of nft's, the fact that they are priced in ether. we see kids, musicians who are now measuring their wealth in ether. dan: bitcoin has been amazing, we have owned a lot of it, and i think it will go up another 10x over the next five years or something like that, but most of the innovation is in other things. hundreds of tokens out there. companies building on top of ethereum, polkadot. those are the small caps that have the potential to go up 100x. sonali: you made a trade recommendation earlier. as a longtime investor in macro treating, do you think shorting bonds -- to what extent does that payoff? do you short the dollar, too?

dan: i'm always looking for asymmetric trades, where the upside is bigger than the downside. i think they are going to go down 20 percentage points in the next year. the risk of being along on a bond, the opportunity to short it is much higher. the question about the dollar, when they print 9 trillion extra pieces of paper, it takes more paper to buy the quantity when it is fixed. matt: when governments start shutting done certain people's access to the world reserve currency, when the saudi start holding talks with the chinese about the yuan. dan: countries and private citizens will ultimately want to have some of their fx reserves or personal wealth independent of geopolitical issues. sonali: do you think that the de-dollarization happens at a

faster rate, and what extent will that make people turn to bitcoin? dan: i think within the next three years, you'll see central banks buying crypto's like bitcoin. the current geopolitical issues will hasten that but it is going to come anyway. i think in 10 years, central banks will be saying, why do we store gold when we can own the future, bitcoin, cryptocurrency? matt: great to have you on the program. i hope we can get you back on our crypto show. sonali, iou at least a beer. it will be gluten-free. sonali: nonalcoholic? matt: great to have both of you on the program. still ahead, jp morgan is still said to process the funds for bond payments from russia. the possibility of a default here, get insight over these concerns from padhraic garvey,

head of rate strategy over at ing. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. as the war in ukraine persists, john kirby, assistant to the secretary for public affairs, the pentagon press secretary, tells maria tadeo that russia's words on diplomacy are not matching their actions on the ground. they spoke at nato headquarters in brussels. >> they are fighting very bravely, very valiantly, and creatively. they are using their superior knowledge of the terrain, their own geography, as well as their own nimble behavior in teams -- in terms of using the systems they are getting quite effectively.

they have stalled the russian advance. the united states will contribute to that effort. you saw president biden announce another $800 million. that brings it to $2 billion in the last year that the u.s. has given insecurity assistance to ukraine. we know that they are good at using these systems in the field. >> president putin yesterday gave a speech. the content was quite something, where he talked about russia will prevail and we are going to meet our goals. concerned are you about the response from russia? >> for all the talk we have seen about russians long to find a diplomatic path forward, we have not seen them act on that. there are cease fire talks going on, we support that, we want to see a negotiated settlement. that is what we want to see. but what you are seeing on the ground is the russians commitment to full on military operations. and they continue to hammer cities with long-range fires, bombardment by missiles and

rocket systems. you have seen it yourself, how much damage and destruction and death they are causing. while they say they want to find a negotiated settlement, they are militarily trying to press for advantage and causing amazing destruction. the fighting continues. you with cameras on the ground can see it for yourself. the fighting and the death and destruction continues. one of the options mr. pruden still has available to him, he has the option of a peaceful negotiated settlement. we would like to see those efforts really bear fruit in some sort of earnest way. matt: that was the pentagon press secretary john kirby speaking with maria tadeo. a quick check on what is going on in the markets right now. the s&p 500 getting .6%. it looks risk on. on the other hand, investors are buying 10 year debt, pushing the yield down under 2.16.

also selling off the bloomberg dollar index. nymex crude popping higher with brent up 9%. ti is up 7.7%. a little bit of a mixed picture in terms of today. we had an incredible rally the last couple of days, the best back-to-back gains since 2020. 2% plus on the s&p on wednesday and tuesday. coming up, my interview with the ceo of audi. he details how the war in ukraine has affected production and partnerships that he is working on intensifying with lamborghini, bentley, and ducati. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: welcome to the bnn in bloomberg audience. i'm mark crumpton with bloomberg first word news. china's foreign ministry has back remarks that it made to

ukraine who said china was a friendly country to ukraine and would never attack it, according to a post on the government website of the city of lviv. china has struggled to balance its diplomatic partnership with russia with supporting the sovereignty of independent nations. vladimir putin has warned he will cleanse russia of what he called scum and traitors who work secretly for the united states and its allies. he lashed out at domestic critics as he faces an economic meltdown over the war in ukraine. he accused the west of wanting to destroy russia. the u.s. house of representatives is preparing to change their trade status with the u.s. if the action becomes law, russia would be in the same category as countries like north korea and cuba.

residents in fukushima, japan and the surrounding region are cleaning up after an earth wednesday killed at least four people and injured more than 100 others. the quake was a magnitude 7.4. that region is part of an area that was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami 11 years ago. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ jon: i'm jon erlichman. welcome to bloomberg markets. matt: i'm matt miller. here are the top stories we are following for you from around the world. oil rises above $100 a barrel with russia casting doubts on the progress of current peace talks with ukraine.

this comes after retreating for much of the past week. after being anonymous, jp morgan has been identified as the bank that processed funds earmarked for interest payments into four dollar bonds held by the russian government. we will discuss the latest on that. and we will hear from the ceo of audi, on how the war in ukraine will affect their production, with many suppliers located in that country. jon: matt mentioned what is happening with oil prices but it is an interesting market dynamic. tsx up more than 1%. positive performance for the s&p and nasdaq, on a day where commodities are doing well. you are seeing investors do some nibbling on those growth names like technology, but the intraday performance influenced by some of that reporting on the russia story we've been tracking. it has been a complicated development. for days we know the world has

been wondering whether russia or not would be able to make a key debt payment in the face of sanctions. over the last 24 hours, we knew there were indications, bloomberg did reporting on this, that the u.s. treasury would not stand in the way of being able to facilitate those payments. we know russia was being vocal about making the efforts. the key processing by jp morgan. they played that role, charged with that role of getting that money to citi which is representing the bondholders. the ability of this process to continue seems to be leaving investors, for now, feeling like we are getting to the finish line but there are debt payments made all the time. we will have to continue to monitor the situation. matt: we should also keep in mind, it is not just one payment.

they have a lot coming up, as well. the likelihood of default, rating agencies have said, is extremely high. interesting to see how distressed debt investors deal with this. priced at 18, $.20 on the dollar, are you tempted to go in? does your moral compass make any difference when you are looking to play a part in the financial markets? these are questions that people will need to deal with. jon: let's keep the conversation going. padhraic garvey is with us from ing. i am sure you have been asking questions, too, because the mechanics of the market working effectively is key. what are you hearing based on reporting, on your partners? padhraic: thanks for having me. we are still waiting for confirmation that the foreign

holders of these dollar bonds that are due these coupons are getting those coupons. that is all very well for the issuer to say that we will pay and start the process, but it is a complex process. until recipients receive the coupons -- and if there is a failure to receive coupons, that would be a taxable assault. there is a second issue. because the sanctions, holders of these dollar bonds will not receive dollars but rubles, and even if it is the same valuation, that is not what holders have signed up for. even if there is a receipt of rubles, you could still class this as a technical default. it is not about affordability but about russia making good on those payments, those payments ending up in the pockets of the holders of those bonds. matt: bloomberg is reporting

that jp morgan processed funds earmarked for interest payments due on dollar bonds. what you are saying is those funds may be paid out in rubles rather than dollars? padhraic: this is due to the sanctions on the russia side. let's put it this way. the moment the recipient receives the bonds, they will probably technically receive dollars. the banks that look after these payments will translate that from rubles into dollars, but technically, it is the ruble being paid. that is a part of the sanctions set up. i will throw something else into the equation. this is not the only coupon. there is a large redemption due in april. that will bring the credit default swap market into play. if there is a threat to the receipt of principal, that is a much bigger default. default is default, but that is a bigger default.

the other thing that is important is to deal with valuations. if you look at where dollar bonds are trading offshore, not talking about guys sitting in russia, we are talking about guys sitting in the u.s., overseas. they are trading five cents on the dollar. that means they are worth practically zero. we need to get the coupon through with certainty. we also need to have certainty that future payments will come. otherwise we have these ridiculous valuations. jon: i want to tie this back to the other big story this week, the u.s. federal reserve without first rate move in four years. people have been talking about the bond market reaction to the fed's challenges ahead, worries about an inverted yield curve. given the situation in russia and ukraine right now, that has changed the dynamics between trading on things like the 10 year. maybe you can clarify what we

are seeing today versus the question that we are all asking in terms of the ultimate possible inversion of the yield curve? padhraic: today has been a bit of reaction from yesterday. yesterday we had a 25 basis point hike from the fed in our opinion, the telegraphing was a 50 basis point hike in may. the question was how with the market take this? market functioning has been difficult. credit spreads have been widening. the market has taken this very well. it has been a risk on day to day. rates have come down. you have to look though those days and look at where we are. we are in a place where the front end of the u.s. curve is telegraphed into the fed, walk into this space. 2's are practically at 2%, plenty of room to hike rates. this is an issue, can be an

issue for markets going forward. it has been a decent day in terms of market functioning. matt: i want to ask about the possibility that these bonds are bid at five cents, whatever they are trading at. somebody is buying these. is there a possibility to make real money here? should investors be concerned with the ethically fraught decision to support russian debt while they are attacking ukraine? padhraic: is there a market? not really. you have a marketplace where there are players out there who are willing to offload russian paper for some of the reasons you have given, and also partly in the expectation that they may not be made whole anyway. there are some players who are willing to unload the paper.

if you look at the paper priced five cents to the dollar, it is like buying an option. you write it off and enjoy the oversight. this is an awful space to be talking about in terms of making money. the vast majority of players are just staying away from this. internal controls are saying don't do it. this is why it is priced down there. the real market is not there. the real market is probably 30 to $.40 on the dollar. for us, outside russia, we don't want that stuff. matt: understood. padhraic, really appreciate your insight on this issue. i will say that although you are coming to us from new york, i detect your accent. happy st. patrick's day. i hope you can enjoy. padhraic garvey over at ing. coming up, oil is surging today. up next in our stock of the

hour, how that volatility is affecting companies that produce it. this is bloomberg. ♪

jon: this is bloomberg markets. i'm jon erlichman. you kicked off the hour talking about what is happening with the price of oil. oil stocks have bounced back from their longest down streak since august, as talks stall between ukraine and russia. wti back over $100 a barrel. kriti gupta has been tracking the story. as much as we talk about this roller coaster over the month, $65 to basically $100 today. that is something that companies

around the world are watching closely. kriti: you can see how that is built into what the stock market is doing. energy is your best performing sector, up 3%. the next highest is materials, up 1.7%. you can see that bid is powerful. it is not all energy seeing the movement. it is the companies that have more american exposure, which makes sense, as we have comments about u.s. companies ramping up production. take a look at what is happening with occidental, which has not only been the outperformer today but year to date. a lot of this comes from the buffet bid. moves coming from geopolitical tensions, but warren buffett helped to finance the anadarko deal, and has been building up his stake. 14.6% stake in occidental right now, so no wonder you are seeing

them rally. matt: pull up glco on your travel right now. global commodity prices. it is buts how much green -- nuts how much green there is on the screen. up like crazy, 9, 12, 13%. if you look at the average volume at time column, no matter whether you have 10 days or 30 days, we are looking at less than half the volume we have seen over the last month. what is going on? kriti: let me put this in perspective. when you see downside moves in volatility, the downside moves will have more volatility than the upside. commodities selling off last week and most of this week. it is pretty normal to put that in perspective on a 10-day timeframe to say volume is lower

but that does not mean that less people are -- fewer people are actively participating. thank you, keeping me honest with my grammar. there is something said to be about fewer open position being made. there is that case. fewer want to be exposed to that kind of volatility. matt: this is kind of an inside thing with me and kriti. we do radio together. kriti: and he corrects me every time. matt: i recommend everyone to an into our program, 10:00. it's a great time to listen to bloomberg radio. kriti group to talking to us about the big moves in oil. coming up, the audi co markus duesmann laying out plans for the automakers next move. >> we will gain a lot of experience, how electric drivetrains work. we have electrification strategy

for the company. we have so much know-how in all of the electric acacian. -- electrification. some of our people are working closely on those details. matt: working closely with his -- talking about his work with famed italian motorcycle maker ducati. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is bloomberg markets. i'm matt miller. automakers around the world are grappling with a host of new supply chain issues in the wake of russia's invasion of ukraine. i caught up with the ceo of audi, markus duesmann, and he says it will be a long time

before things get back to normal. markus: let me say, it makes me really sad and speechless to see so many people suffering, who have to leave their home, the destruction that we see, brutality is really, really s ad. as a consequence of this war, we do have issues in the supply chain. many of our suppliers are located in ukraine, especially for wiring harnesses. this comes in addition to the microprocessors that we already had. most of our factories are standing still this week, but we have an outlook that it gets better in the next few weeks. matt: it will take you a couple of weeks to get your production back online. do you think in two weeks

everything will be back to normal for audi? markus: it will take some time but i think we are on a good way. actually, it is so hard to see. the brief people in ukraine still producing wiring harnesses, not to the full extent that we need, but these brave people are really strong and supportive. matt: how many units of production will this cost you? markus: it is too early to say. we replicate productions in other sites of our suppliers. we think we can catch up during the rest of the year. matt: you are already dealing with high raw material costs, dealing with the chip shortage. does production look like it will take -- in terms of all of

those issues -- still until 2023 to get back to normal? markus: the cost issue of run materials is another topic. we will see. like always in the market, after this war -- and there will be a time after this war. when we get back to normal, we have a certain price level that we have to adjust to, act to. it is too early to say when we will be up to normal. probably the second half of this year, depending on how ukraine develops. matt: the war aside, i wonder about the chips situation. this has been a problem not just for audi and volkswagen, but the whole auto industry. how does it look right now? markus: the chips situation

looks much better. we are in close contact with our first suppliers, but also with the chip manufacturers. we are in pretty good shape. that is why i said the second half of the year should be much smoother than it was at the end of last year. matt: that was the audi co markus duesmann. we were talking also about ducati. no secret that i'm a ducati lover and rider. markus duesmann is, as well. even more interesting is his experience in raising, what he brings in that to production. he started his career i believe that daimler-benz, and then worked for the f1 development at mercedes, switched over to bmw, worked on the f1 development there, and then came to audi. he has a lot of experience in turning racetrack innovations

into the everyday things that you and i use in our cars, and that is important especially for a brand like audi. jon: since you are the car guy, i wonder if that influences the ev lineup. we have been talking about the higher price of oil. for a brand like audi, they are very much committed -- the parent company is very much committed to getting a huge piece of that market, especially in areas like china where they are looking to grow quickly. i even saw some headlines about the possibility that they might consider an electric pickup. is this a possibility? if this were on the market, would matt miller be interested? matt: i love the idea of electric pickups, cannot wait for the market to see more of them. , he has said that we need to live in a fossil free world. they have been using racing technology in their hybrids, the

superconductors that audi uses on the new kuhn tosh. ducati will make all of the electric motorcycles for the new moto e series and they are using those partnerships with those other brands all owned by volkswagen to develop future products. it will be a pretty exciting future. jon: i am just a beetle owner, so you are miles ahead of me. matt: i'm a big fan of that, as well. let's take a look at what is happening in markets. the s&p at session highs of 1%, even as oil rises. ti treating at over $100 a barrel. for jon erlichman, i'm matt miller. this is bloomberg. ♪

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>> keeping you up-to-date with news from around the world, here is the first word.

the kremlin says reports of major progress in peace talks with ukraine are wrong. that comes a day after russia sent a proposal for ukraine to become a neutral country with its own armed forces could be a compromise. the ukrainian negotiators were "in no rush." ukraine's biggest utility said 1.3 million were without power and its military said russian strikes continue on residential areas. in germany, nato's secretary-general says this to russia -- >> nato has a responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating further. that would be even more dangerous and cause more suffering, death and destruction. this is president putin's war. he must stop the war, withdraw his forces and engage in diplomacy in good faith.