Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Lutty Dunn and today I'm joined by James Heel and Tim Shipman.

Ukraine's president, Bodmer, Slensky, spent this morning on down East Street with Keir Starmour

to discuss just how successful Wednesday's calls with Donald Trump really went ahead of Friday's

big Alaska meets between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. James, neither Starmine or Zelensky will be at the

Alaska meeting tomorrow, but what do we know so far about what the European leaders have said to

Trump? Well, from what we can tell the calls yesterday, all the European leaders are seem to be singing

from the same hymn sheet, you know, the word excellent features in many of their respected government statements. And really, this is all about trying to get

the Americans in their most kind of pro-Ukraine, pro-European mindset ahead of that big summit

tomorrow. And so I think it's been quite interesting having that call. And we had a subsequent,

another rambling press conference from Donald Trump at the Kennedy Center where he talked about potential ramifications for Vladimir Putin if he doesn't go along with the deal with Ukraine. So I think there's been some telltale signs of Trump's frustration in recent months. And this obviously is something that the Europeans are sort of clutching as a hope. The other thing to mention, of course, is J.D. Vance, the vice president. Sometimes that post has been likened to nothing more than a bucket of warm spit, depending on interpretation, in history. But Vance seems to be sort of playing a role as the kind of intellectual commander-in-chief of this White House. And I think it's been notable having a lot of conservatives who, you know, whatever we think of their kind of harmony with the right in America are very much in a different place when it comes to Ukraine. I think that's an important divide between the American and the British right. And they've obviously been around him for the evening the past couple of days, people like Robert Jemrick. And we see more names like Katie Lam, et cetera, rising star of the future, as well as people like David Lammy last week, of course.

So we very much is about trying to get the Americans in the headspace where it's a bit like sort of, it depends how you view diplomacy and whether you think that this White House is very much like the sort of the last person who sat on them. They'll bear the resemblance of going to this negotiation. So it's about trying to get them in their kind of mindset. And then, of course, Star mustosei, meeting with Zelensky, not going to any kind of media event or press conference,

but really sort of reassuring him ahead of his Leninsky's trip to Berlin.

So suggesting that's European solidarity, we're playing the cards, the limited cards we've got as best as possible,

as well as much of a focus in the press at the moment about the kind of economic

situation facing Russia with the budget deficit now at the highest level for 30 years, obviously

huge amounts of pressure because of the war economy they've built over the last three years.

And Tim James mentioned David Lammy. We talked earlier in the week, actually, about that

Lammy trying to woo J.D. Vans over this fishing trip and that maybe not necessarily going the way that he wanted to, particularly now that Lammie's having to refer himself to a watchdog. But it does seem there have been some reports that suggest that Vance is maybe softening stands a little bit on Ukraine. What do you know and what can we expect when it comes to tomorrow when it comes to

this meet about how the Americans are going to go into the summit? Well, look, I mean, James is

100% right. This is the biggest division between Britain and America and between the right in both

countries. And getting, you know, one of the influential people to kind of understand how we see

the world and why we do think it's significant and, you know, democracy in Ukraine

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