UPDATE, OCT 13:

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, I evaluated the response to Vladimir Putin’s firing of missiles on Ukrainian civilian areas and infrastructure.

I speak with Beverley O’Connor about the international community’s provision of air defense to Kyiv; the state of the Ukrainian counter-offensives in the east and south of the country; and the possible political and military scenarios.

Watch Discussion from 12:36

UPDATE, OCT 12:

I spoke further about the Russian missile strikes and Vladimir Putin’s desperation with Turkey’s ANews on Tuesday afternoon.

Do you negotiate with someone who tries to take over your house and who, when he can’t take over your house, tries to burn it to the ground? Do you negotiate with someone who repeatedly attacks you and your family?

We can talk about “diplomatic off-ramps” and “paths to peace”, but the fact remains — and we need to cut through disinformation to make this clear — is that one person stands in the way of negotiations. And that person is Vladimir Putin.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: I appeared on UK and international media on Monday and Tuesday to analyze why Vladimir Putin launched missile strikes on more than 20 cities in Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv.

The answer is straightforward: a desperate Putin is facing the defeat of his invasion, amid Ukrainian counter-offensives and the partial demolition of the 12-mile Kerch Bridge between Crimea and Russia’s Taman Peninsula. For the first time, the Russian leader is being criticized by military analysts, with State TV’s commentators calling on him to do something to reverse the tide of the war.

Listen to Ireland’s RTE Radio 1

I joined Ukrainian TV journalist Marichka Padalko; Ukrainian MP Volodymyr Ariev; and Donnacha O’Beachain of Dublin City University to evaluate the political and military situation.

This is the not-quite-last act of a desperate man. He lost one of his pet projects, the Kerch Bridge. More widely, he’s been losing this invasion over the past month as Ukraine advances in the northeast and south — not just retaking territory that Russia seized this year, but also putting pressure on areas controlled by Moscow since 2014.

See also Ukraine War, Day 230: Kyiv — Help Us Defend v. Putin’s Desperate Strikes

Listen to Times Radio from 14:17

I joined host Anna Cunningham on Wednesday morning for a 14-minute discussion of Ukraine’s success, Putin’s appointment of a new overall commander for the invasion, the international support for Kyiv, and the prospect that the Russian leader could fall.

Before Vladimir Putin is replaced, you’ll see a desperate man acting even more desperately, with his desperate supporters trying to wish up a victory from eventual defeat.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is seeking more international assistance so he can say to Putin, “Look, you’re not going to win this, my friend. So halt it now and go back to Russia so we limit the bloodshed.”

Watch India Ahead

Putin faced the pressure of supporters who said, “What are you going to do about this?”

He did this today, but what happens the next time Ukraine advances on the battlefield?

Listen to BBC West Midlands from 18:16

Putin will continue to bluff that he is in a position of strength. This will not be over next week or next month because Putin’s final card to play — the last act of a desperate man — is to get the international community to abandon Ukraine through his deployment of the “energy weapon”.

Asked “why should people care?”, I respond:

When you have mass killing of men, women, and children, when you have people whose entire existence — their homes, their schools, their hospitals, their jobs — is under threat….

That’s something that we all should be concerned about.

If you want to bring it closer to home: this is the most dangerous threat to Europe since World War II.