Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with a call by Secretary of Defense Hegeseth in a meeting with his NATO counterparts

for Ukraine to give up its territory to Russia and forget about joining NATO in what appears to be giving up

Ukraine's leverage before any negotiations begin. Joining us to discuss how much Ukraine is being thrown under the bus is Stephen Pfefer,

a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution,

and a fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian

Affairs as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and special assistant to the President and senior director

for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council, and is the author of a number of books

including The Eagle and the Trident, U.S.-Ukraine relations in turbulent times, and averting crisis in Ukraine.

Then we'll examine whether the Trump administration is already capitulating to Putin

and speak with Michael Kimmage, director of the Wilson Center's Canon Institute,

who was previously a professor of history

and department chair at the Catholic University of America, chair of the Canon Institute Advisory

Council and a fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

From 2014 to 2017, he served on the Secretary's Policy Planning staff at the United States

Department of State,

where he held the Russia-Ukraine portfolio.

He's the author of The Abandonment of the West, the history of an idea in American foreign policy,

and collisions the war in Ukraine and the origins of the new global instability.

Then finally we'll assess yesterday's Oval Office meeting between King Abdullah and President

...