Is Trump using Ukrainian corruption to force a peace deal?
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's perhaps no coincidence that Trump's latest peace plan has dropped just as President Zelenskyy is having to deal with the biggest corruption scandal his government has faced so far. The latest plan was drawn up in secret with Russia and depends on huge concessions from Ukraine.
Joining Niall is our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn to discuss what's in the 28-point plan and whether a perceived weakness of Zelenskyy's position is why it has come out now.
Plus, Jaroslava Barbieri, research fellow at the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House on the details of the growing corruption scandal engulfing the Ukrainian government.
Producer: Emily Hulme
Editor: Wendy Parker
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up, corruption in Ukraine. |
| 0:03.2 | As allegations are made against allies of Vladimir Zelensky, |
| 0:06.3 | what hope for the latest plan for peace? |
| 0:10.3 | Stop paying to invest. |
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| 0:35.1 | Capital at risk. Iser and SIP rules apply. Other charges may apply. |
| 0:41.7 | Claims of corruption in Ukraine are nothing new. In fact, you're probably more used to hearing it described as endemic corruption. |
| 0:49.3 | That phrase is often used by Putin apologists as justification for ending the West's support for |
| 0:54.8 | Vladimir Zelensky, which doesn't mean it's necessarily not true, of course. |
| 1:00.0 | The Ukrainian justice and energy ministers recently resigned over an embezzlement scandal |
| 1:05.0 | involving state-run nuclear energy company Ennerhal Atom. |
| 1:09.2 | A close friend of Zelensky has fled the country. |
| 1:12.9 | And just as the scandal comes close to invoking criticism of the president directly, |
| 1:17.6 | Zelensky now has to deal with a new peace plan, a plan drawn up by the Americans with |
| 1:22.1 | Russian involvement, but neither Ukraine nor Europe having any input. No wonder some in the West have already described it as a complete capitulation. |
| 1:31.5 | And just as I sat down to record this, in fact, the EU said for any peace plan to work, |
| 1:36.9 | both Kiev and Europe need to be on board. |
| 1:40.7 | For Ukraine to be sidelined so completely suggests there is weakness perceived in Zelensky's position |
... |
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