One of the many fascinating dimensions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is rooted in language. When this story moved to the center of our news in the United States almost a decade ago I had the rough and incorrect sense that Ukrainian was something like a deep regional dialect of Russian — distinct but certainly mutually intelligible. But this is not the case. One of my guides in learning about this has been our Josh Kovensky, who is a fluent Russian speaker and lived in Ukraine for three years working as a journalist before coming to TPM. He’s described it to me as more like the difference between some of the more proximate Romance languages, like Spanish and Italian. He describes being able to get some of the gist of what someone is saying in Ukrainian. But it’s imperfect at best. Basically it’s someone speaking a different language. I have also heard it compared to the difference between English and Dutch — two closely related West Germanic languages which are not remotely mutually intelligible.

RUSSIAN NEGOTIATORS TODAY SAID that they’re making progress in ceasefire negotiations with Ukraine and expect to sign a document in the next few days. On its face, that’s not very credible given what we see unfolding in the country. Even more so because it is hard to imagine what terms both sides would currently agree to for a ceasefire or end of the conflict. What complicates the picture though is that one of President Zelensky’s top advisors, Mykhailo Podolyak, who is involved in the negotiations posted a short video today saying something broadly similar. Podolyak said Russian negotiators are no longer making ultimatums and are “looking far more properly” at the situation on the ground. He says he thinks “concrete results” are possible in the next few days.

Again, who knows what that means. But it’s similar enough to the comments from the Russian side to make one think there may be some movement forward.