Could a peace deal be close?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ukraine has given its support to a peace deal following talks with the United States in Geneva, but some of the most sensitive issues are still to be discussed between the countries' presidents, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.
It followed claims that Ukraine had agreed to a deal, which look to have been exaggerated, but Zelensky could meet Trump before the end of the week.
To talk through how close we really are to peace, and what it could look like, Victoria and James Waterhouse are joined by diplomatic correspondent James Landale, and former Russia advisor to Trump Fiona Hill.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and James Waterhouse. The producers were Julia Webster and Laurie Kalus. The technical producer was Jack Graysmark. The series producer is Chris Flynn. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | If you're the person always being asked, what's happening in the news? |
| 0:10.9 | You could do with a podcast wingman. |
| 0:13.3 | Newscast is just that, a little voice in your ear, |
| 0:16.5 | giving you a deeper understanding of what's going on in the world. |
| 0:19.5 | We won't even mind if you try and take |
| 0:21.0 | the credit yourself. Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. Hello, it's 1371 days since Russia |
| 0:29.9 | began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Vitale is away. James is with us from Kiev. Hi James. Hi, Vic. And straight away, I'm going to ask you, |
| 0:40.6 | has Ukraine agreed to some kind of peace deal? I am trying, I promise you to keep up with this. |
| 0:47.2 | We had contact from a senior US official who suggested that Ukraine would be, well, President Zelensky, no less, |
| 0:55.8 | would be on his way to Washington to sign a peace agreement. Then we had a carefully worded |
| 1:01.4 | statement from Kiev, from his national security advisor, saying President Zelensky and Donald |
| 1:06.6 | Trump could finalize the final steps before making a deal. And we've since had a correction from |
| 1:12.8 | Kiev saying some sensitive issues still need to be ironed out at a presidential level. So we're not |
| 1:19.4 | there yet, but you can imagine the diplomatic flurry that's going on in the background. |
| 1:24.6 | Yes, absolutely. And we are going to deep dive into this with our diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, |
| 1:30.8 | and also preeminent Russia expert and former Russia advisor to the White House |
| 1:34.7 | during Donald Trump's first term, Fiona Hill. |
| 1:37.5 | This is Ukrainecast. |
| 1:39.8 | Ukraine cast from BBC News. |
| 1:42.4 | This is a sovereign nation under unprovoked attack. |
| 1:46.8 | We are ready to finish this war as quick as possible. |
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