From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittrow-F.

This is the Daily.

Over the weekend, Russia bombarded Ukraine with the largest drone assault in the war thus far.

It's the latest in a relentless Russian offensive that keeps escalating despite President

Trump's efforts to negotiate peace.

Today, my colleague Anatoly Kerminaev on the economic war machine that's driving Russia's

success on the battlefield and making it so hard for anyone to get Putin to back down.

It's Tuesday, September 9th.

Anatoly, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

You know, I first met you in Mexico.

We were both there as correspondence, but you left.

And for the last couple of years, you've been reporting on Russia, which is incidentally

where you grew up.

And you told me at one point that you felt people had an incomplete picture of this

war, because they really weren't understanding the forces inside Russia that were driving Putin

and enabling his ambitions on the battlefield.

That's right, Natalie. I think the images that the world saw in the first months,

the first year of this war pointed to Russia's imminent collapse,

you know, the conversations that were being had in diplomatic dinners,

receptions in the West at the time were about collapse.

It wasn't just that the invasion of Ukraine will fail,

...