the effort is to see if you can take the existing past or settlement in ukraine, the minced protocols of 2014 and 2015, and make them work. essentially, those protocols call for a semiautonomous zone in eastern ukraine. that's what the russians say they want. the russian-speaking people in eastern ukraine who are backed by the russians would have a degree of autonomy. that's in the minsk protocols, but they've broken down. it seems what putin really wants is a completely neutered ukrainian government. he wants it to have no free will. ukraine is moving fast toward the west. i don't just mean the people who lift in the capcapital, kiev, b the people in the east. the settlement along the russian borders is pretty much the same. this is a country that wants to be part of europe. to putin, he wants to hold on