Russia makes unrealistic proposals as Ukraine buildup continues

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Europe:

What does Russia really want with this diplomatic and military offensive?

Answer is we don't know. They have put on the table proposals that are extremely maximalistic. They will simply not fly. Is there anything in that that can be worked on? Remains to be seen. Can they back down to more realistic positions? Uncertain, but remains to be seen. In the meantime, the military build-up against Ukraine continues, so fairly dramatic months ahead, I fear.

Is Boris Johnson threatened in his position as prime minister in the UK?

Not yet, although the Conservative Party suffered a painful by election defeat that was clearly meant as a signal to Boris Johnson, and he's also being heavily criticized also inside the Conservative Party for the one mistake or the other in the last few weeks. But he's a man of talent, and I think he will now have a couple of months to see if he can recover from these significant setbacks. We'll see what happens thereafter.