The battle for the Donbas rages in Ukraine's east with Russian forces on the verge of capturing the strategically vital city of Sievierodonetsk. And with Ukrainian cities facing a merciless onslaught of Russian artillery and missile attacks, Kyiv calls on the West to send more long-range weapons to push back the offensive.

As Ukraine fights for its sovereignty and independence, cracks are appearing in the Western coalition against Vladimir Putin.

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned against "humiliating Russia," Italy has floated a peace plan that would have Ukraine cede territory in exchange for peace, and talks are continuing in Turkey, without Kyiv's participation, to ease the grain crisis that Russia created by blockading Ukraine's ports.

When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it managed to convince much of the world that Georgia had started the war - an absurd proposition given that Georgian troops never left Georgian territory.

When Russia annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas in 2014, it persuaded much of the world to pretend that it was some sort of "civil war" among Ukrainians and that Moscow was not involved despite massive evidence to the contrary.

But with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine this year, very few are believing Vladimir Putin's hype. Few believe the fairy tales of Ukrainian Nazis and chemical weapons. And most understand that this is nothing but an unprovoked war of choice on Putin's part.

Russia's once-feared disinformation machine suddenly looks pathetic.

So what happened? And why? On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran journalist Michael Weiss, news director at the New Lines magazine, contributing editor at The Daily Beast, and director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation, about Russia's flailing propaganda effort and the latest developments on the ground.

If Vladimir Putin's goal in invading Ukraine was to push NATO and the EU out of Eastern Europe, he has failed miserably.

Because suddenly, Finland and Sweden have applied to join NATO, a prospect highly unlikely just months ago.

Suddenly, the prospect of Ukraine joining the EU, unthinkable just months ago, is now a very real possibility.

And suddenly, we are entering into a whole new era of European security. What will it look like?

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former US State Department official Max Bergmann, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about European security in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Does declaring victory make you a victor? As both Russia and Ukraine say they've won the war, it's far from the only question on people's minds, but an important distinction, nonetheless. Listen to this week's episode as we tackle these lines of questions.

Listen to how Brian Whitmore and Jeff Mankoff argue that imperialism is tied to culture and that Russia may not see the changes you'd expect in a world after Putin.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore, speaks with former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was in office at the time of the 2007 attacks, about how they unfolded and what they portended.

Genocide. The word has been thrown out by US President Biden when describing the horrors committed in Ukraine. But is there a legal case to back up the claim?

Week 8 of the Russian war on Ukraine. Is it too early to call this genocide?

Scenes of mass graves and civilians shot execution style in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, are imprinted into the World's mind, and it may never be the same again.