well, let's discuss with holger schmieding, chief economist from berenberg.olger, help us make sense of all these headlines and conversations swirling around ukraine here. are we actually getting any closer to a de-escalation of the conflict? clearly, you've got european leaders working to figure out how much more support they can offer to ukraine. on the other hand, you've got russia coming out in the last 24 hours, reiterating that they want to achieve their goals in ukraine and that their most important main thing is for russia to achieve their goals in ukraine. it doesn't seem like these two things are working together here. >> yeah, absolutely. so far the various positions are not yet compatible. and what we have to say is that recent events have strengthened the hand of putin because the us, in a way, has given three bargaining chips sort of away. namely, the us has said that ukraine has to cede territory. that is not a big surprise, but this is something which should be, if any, if at all, at the end of negotiations, not at the start. the us has sort o