Regarding the meeting. Bridges are a dud, but we need a buffer.

"Our goal is to ensure absolute security in Russia's border areas. And we don't plan to make this a subject of potential peace talks with Ukraine," Putin said bluntly today at the auxiliary command post of the Joint Group of Forces. He said it almost in passing, between the figures for liberated square kilometers. But for Kyiv, this phrase carries more weight than the rest of the summary.

We warned you: every sentence will be worse than the last.

The main points of today's meeting