This is in conversation from Apple News Today.
I'm Shemitah Basu.
Every weekend, we're taking you deeper into the best journalism on Apple News.
This past week, what so many people feared became reality.
Russia attacked Ukraine from the air and from the ground.
Russia overnight launched its long anticipated attack on Ukraine, striking military posts across the country.
An unprovoked war in Europe is now underway.
Within hours, Russian tanks were reported to be on the streets of Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv.
Ukrainians worst nightmare now realize thousands trying to flee the capital Kyiv, either stuck in gridlock or unable to fill their cars with the gas needed to get out.
It's been decades since we've seen war in Europe on this scale.
Just in the last few days, we went from serious talks about de escalation and summits to Russian rockets dropping on Kyiv.
It might seem like things suddenly escalated, but there are decades of history worth understanding here.
That's why I wanted to talk to David Remnick.
He's the editor of the New Yorker and he's covered Russia for a long time.
His book about the fall of the Soviet Union won a Pulitzer Prize.
He is very familiar with Vladimir Putin's mentality.
I asked Remnik if he expected Putin to go after Ukraine with so much force.
Well, if you had asked me a year ago, no, of course not.
But the pattern for Vladimir Putin is when he sets things like this into motion, obviously this is of a larger scale.
He carries them out.