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

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin

with a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who recently returned from that country under relentless

Russian attack with nine civilians killed yesterday by a missile that hit a bus. Following the

farcical peace talks in Istanbul, we will discuss how Trump is trying to save face announcing a phone

call with Putin on Monday morning after having been played by Putin with the likelihood that

he'll never get the so-called peace deal he wants between Putin and Zelensky, until Trump

puts pressure on Putin, which he appears incapable or afraid of doing.

Joining us is Ambassador 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. He 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.

And he has an article of Brookings, is a deal really emerging on Russia-Ukraine?

Then we'll go to Kiev and speak with Tamar Jacobi, a Kiev-based director of the Progressive Policy Institute's new Ukraine project.

She was a senior writer and justice editor at Newsweek, and before that, the deputy editor

of the New York Times op-ed page.

Now a regular contributor to Forbes.com.

She's the author of Displaced, the Ukrainian Refugee Experience, and has an article at the Washington Monthly Zelensky's Big Istanbul Gamble,

and we'll discuss how much the Ukrainians want peace,

but will not accept surrender on Putin's terms.

...