Name: Is Donald Trump still interested in Ukraine-Russia peace talks? | BBC Newscast
Uploaded: 2025-04-12T09:45:51.000Z
Duration: 35 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

All week, the world has been talking about a trade war, but in Ukraine, a real war rages on.

That's what we're going to discuss on this episode of Newscast.

And in the second half of this episode, we're going to be talking about whether the UK government is going to step in to rescue the British steel industry to nationalise it potentially.

But right now, remember Ukraine, we're going to go back to that.

And we have on the line from Kyiv, our very own Ukraine correspondent, James Waterhouse.

And John is a former defence attaché to Moscow from the UK, and also Kyiv, and now associate fellow at Chatham House.

As I say, this has been the week of tariffs.

We haven't actually talked about Ukraine all that much this week, and the peace talks and the so-called coalition of the willing of these Western nations, particularly European nations.

But defence ministers are meeting today in Brussels.

And James, what is your take on whether we have made a mistake here by just ignoring something really significant that's been happening this week, because we've been completely swept away by tariffs?

Well, James, I'm going to argue as a Ukraine correspondent that Ukraine should be on the news every day.

But I think the story now from here in Kyiv is one that isn't really changing.

But it's the way it's not changing, which is the story, if that makes sense.

Because you have these overtures of peace.

You have the meeting of this so-called coalition of the willing.

You have this American energy deal as it tries to get a cut of Ukraine's future wealth in return for military aid in the future, which is continuing to look less favourable to Kyiv.

And all the while, you've got tens of thousands of Russian troops, says President Zelensky, says the head of his armed forces, gathering in Russia's Western Kursk region.

And it seems, they say, that Russia has started its spring offensive with the hardening of the ground, the more favourable conditions, although you wouldn't know it now, I'm surrounded by snow.

So in that sense, and this is what Ukraine argues, nothing has changed.

Russia is still pursuing its original objective of trying to take as much of Ukraine as possible.

And that is despite America continuing to spearhead these ceasefire efforts.

What's your assessment about those ceasefire efforts, John?

I think the momentum we saw in February, March has sort of waned slightly, especially as the White House has got consumed by tariffs.

And Siv Witkoff has been diverted to speak to Iran.

You know, we had a series of meetings going backwards and forth, but it's been very little since the...

He's the special envoy for Donald Trump, who previously had not really any diplomatic experience at all.

Well, he had no diplomatic experience whatsoever.

And what's interesting, actually, is how he's been used over the sort of serial professionals in the State Department and perhaps at the cost of Mr Rubio, the Secretary of State for the United States.

So I think there has been a sort of hiatus of activity.

There was lots of momentum, then a sort of gap.

And who knows what's going on in the background.

But as James says, I think Ukraine does matter.

I think that Russia is trying to press forward to try and maximise its gains before you ceasefire.

But I think we were a long way away from where the ceasefire proposal was maybe a month ago, unconditional ceasefire, then it was broken down to land, sea and air, and then seeing what the ceasefire hasn't held at all.

So I think the path to a ceasefire, and then even beyond that to peace talks and peace agreement is long, twisty and hard to discern at present.

Yeah, and the man walking that path is Volodymyr Zelensky, the leader of Ukraine.

And James, you've got a really interesting profile and different.

I've read lots of profiles of Zelensky, but this one was really interesting because you were charting how he has changed over time or in some ways not changed.

And you were suggesting that some people think that's maybe been a problem.

Just would you outline what you're saying in it, James, for us?

Yeah, I mean, President Zelensky's path from comedian, primetime comedian, to wartime president is well documented.

I go to countless briefings here in Kyiv.

You look at the things he says on the record or off the record.

And I think we're seeing him go through another transformation from wartime leader, a president who banged the drum and said, we're going to fight for as long as it takes, and you need to give me as much military aid as possible for the future of my country.

That kind of messaging, his critics say, has impaired him with a Donald Trump administration.

There is a growing fatigue when it comes to Russia's war in Ukraine, a fatigue that people here feel.

You can hear the sirens behind me to this day.

And so the feeling is, is that he has to change and become a negotiator.

And I think we're starting to see that now.

We're seeing him dance to Donald Trump's tune, voicing his gratitude for America's continued help, but also he's having to stand up for the interests of his country as well.

So we're seeing a lot of background negotiation.

But of course, he's still fighting this war, as you can hear.

And I think I sort of reflected on this transformation we're seeing as to how much of a more authoritative figure he is in Ukraine.

He casts a much more lonely figure internationally.

And I think, you know, in times of war, power is concentrated on very few people.

And his critics say that is a bad thing in some respects because his will won't be bent.

But ultimately, he is going to have to bend to Donald Trump's vision for peace.

We've got a security guy that will let us know if we do.

There are different levels of air raid sirens.

Sometimes it's a Russian jet that takes off inside Russia.

Sometimes it's the threat of drones flying in from occupied territory across the Russian border, or there's a ballistic missile threat.

This is just the way of Ukrainian life, to be honest with you.

You know, the air defences, there were six ballistic missiles that hit here over the weekend.

And we understand that there was a, you know, the air defences can't keep every missile out.

So we've got the data, the intelligence that tells us when we have to move.

I'm aware that we're probably going to, might need to let you go in a minute.

So just let me ask you one more question.

And that is, you mentioned the relationship between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.

And you mentioned, I think, essentially that from, in many respects, the Ukrainian leader was demanding things, and maybe he wasn't as good at being diplomatic in his dance around Donald Trump.

I mean, I was struck reading it about how far back that antipathy on Trump's side goes, you know, arguably right back to the point where when he was running for re-election after his first term, Donald Trump, and he was trying to get Zelensky to investigate his rival Joe Biden's son, and Zelensky wouldn't do so.

I mean, there's a bit of that, and then there's a bit of just his general, you know, attraction in Donald Trump towards autocrats, and particularly Volodymyr Putin, who, you know, he's never called him a dictator, but he's called Zelensky a dictator.

How important is repairing that relationship now for the Ukrainian people?

And you're right, there is a path to this point.

You know, I think in more recent times, when we saw Zelensky and Trump stand outside Trump Tower in September last year, when Trump was the Republican nominee, and their body language was awkward.