Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jimmy Rushton: Kyiv based foreign policy analyst on Putin and Zelenskyy pull out of peace talks in Turkey
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Surprise, surprise, Putin didn't turn out for peace talks in Ukraine,
- 0:02Speaker 1: Krimlin confirming Russia's delegation is instead being lead by Presidential
- 0:06Speaker 1: aid of Vladimir Medinsky. Zelensky is also pulled out, sending
- 0:10Speaker 1: his defense Minister.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Russia offered in the media that Putin is ready for
- 0:15Speaker 2: direct negotiations, and then are the information the roles that
- 0:19Speaker 2: it's not decided yet, So it's.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Just starks now, yeah, what does that mean? Jimmy Rushton
- 0:25Speaker 1: is and Kiev. He's a foreign policy and securely at
- 0:28Speaker 1: security analyst with me this morning, Jimmy, good morning, Welcome
- 0:30Speaker 1: to the show.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Hi, good morning.
- 0:33Speaker 1: What does what does he mean Zelensky? By now they're
- 0:36Speaker 1: just talks.
- 0:38Speaker 3: Well, essentially, what Putin had said in this rather hasty
- 0:42Speaker 3: pres coompence that he rated about a week ago was
- 0:45Speaker 3: that he he challenged Zelensky to come to Turkey and
- 0:48Speaker 3: have a conversation face to face. As Zelensky took him
- 0:51Speaker 3: up on the offer, he turned up in Turkey, but
- 0:54Speaker 3: obviously Putin has not, and he sent Medinsky, who is
- 0:57Speaker 3: a very low level official really in the Kremlin. He's
- 1:01Speaker 3: also the same Russian official that led the peace talks
- 1:06Speaker 3: in early twenty twenty two, and to be honest, peace
- 1:09Speaker 3: talks is a generous term because at that point Mitinsky
- 1:11Speaker 3: was essentially saying that Ukrainians should unconditionally surrender. So it's
- 1:16Speaker 3: really seen by the Ukrainian side as a slap in
- 1:18Speaker 3: the face and a sign that Russia continues their maximalist
- 1:20Speaker 3: goals of subjugating Ukraine and making it into a Russian
- 1:24Speaker 3: puppet state.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Is there anyone no one's preparing, even in the background,
- 1:29Speaker 1: behind the scenes, for there to be some kind of
- 1:31Speaker 1: serious ceasefire or peace agreement. I mean, Russia's still building
- 1:35Speaker 1: new explosives facilities to build more drugs and build more bombs.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean it's clear that the Russians are
- 1:44Speaker 3: planning for this war to continue for some time. And
- 1:48Speaker 3: it's pretty clear if you look at some of their
- 1:50Speaker 3: recent build ups is that they're you know, they're building
- 1:53Speaker 3: up forces along the Finnish border, and they're building up
- 1:55Speaker 3: forces along the Estonian border and some of the other
- 1:57Speaker 3: Baltic states as well. So it's pretty clear that they're
- 2:00Speaker 3: not ready for any sort of sustainable peace with Europe,
- 2:03Speaker 3: let alone Ukraine.
- 2:04Speaker 1: Jimmy, what do Ukrainians think of Donald Trump's you know,
- 2:08Speaker 1: he's come out today over night and said nothing will
- 2:11Speaker 1: happen until I'm in the room with Pusian. What did
- 2:13Speaker 1: Ukrainians think when he's his stuff like that.
- 2:16Speaker 3: Well, initially Ukrainians had a relatively favorable or at least
- 2:20Speaker 3: a more generous opinion of Trump, around forty percent of
- 2:23Speaker 3: Ukrainians back in November of last year we're willing to
- 2:26Speaker 3: give him a chance, and that's dropped around seven percent
- 2:28Speaker 3: of Ukrainians having any form of positive opinion of him.
- 2:31Speaker 2: Now.
- 2:32Speaker 3: I mean, he's largely viewed as as someone who's definitely
- 2:36Speaker 3: not favorable to Ukraine and probably more favorable to Putin
- 2:40Speaker 3: and of a strong man, you know, people like Kim
- 2:43Speaker 3: Jong un president year of China, and he's he's not
- 2:46Speaker 3: recent as kind of a friend of the Western democracies
- 2:50Speaker 3: at all. I think for Ukrainians they feel that they
- 2:52Speaker 3: need to manage him as best they can, kind of
- 2:55Speaker 3: placate his ego. That was one of the reasons why
- 2:58Speaker 3: they signed this mineral steel, to give him something that
- 3:00Speaker 3: he could boast about. But yeah, I think they're really
- 3:03Speaker 3: taking it day to day trying to keep him on
- 3:05Speaker 3: side as best they can, but they're aware that he's,
- 3:07Speaker 3: you know, incredibly temperamental and he can change his opinion
- 3:09Speaker 3: pretty much on the spot.
- 3:11Speaker 1: He's a hard dog to keep on the porch. Jimmy,
- 3:13Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Jimmy Rashton, Kiev based foreign policy security
- 3:16Speaker 1: security analysts with us this morning. For more from Early
- 3:19Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks it'd
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