Q&A: Big protests, brief talks and pressure on Zelensky
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It has been a bruising week domestically for President Zelensky, as a controversial move to overhaul key anti-corruption bodies saw thousands of Ukrainians take to the streets in the biggest nationwide demonstrations held since Russia’s full-scale invasion. With the EU already raising concerns, could this undermine his recent progress on the diplomatic stage, particularly when it comes to the Trump administration?
To discuss the fallout, Lucy is joined by chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and Russia editor Steve Rosenberg, who also react to reports of a potential meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in China. Plus - after representatives from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul for the shortest round of peace talks yet - we get Vitaly’s take from Turkey.
Today’s episode is presented by Lucy Hockings. The producers were Laurie Kalus, Julia Webster and Polly Hope. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The series producer is Tim Walklate. 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 | We get it. |
| 0:02.6 | Life is busy. |
| 0:03.7 | You want to keep up with the news, |
| 0:05.2 | but there's just too much going on. |
| 0:07.0 | Which is where Newscast comes in. |
| 0:09.1 | We do the work, |
| 0:10.1 | and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, |
| 0:12.9 | you just pop us into your ears. |
| 0:14.8 | It does mean we have to put in the hard work, though. |
| 0:17.6 | Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:24.8 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:32.6 | It's 1,247 days that Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And this week, another round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, albeit a little later than advertised and with limited progress to speak of. |
| 0:40.2 | And after several weeks of what seemed like positive momentum for President Zelensky on the diplomatic stage, |
| 0:45.7 | his presidency has come under a new level of international scrutiny over controversial changes to domestic anti-corruption bodies. |
| 0:53.7 | We've seen thousands of people protesting in Ukraine and the EU voicing its concern. |
| 0:59.2 | Could this compromise Ukraine's coalition of support, |
| 1:02.2 | just as Kiev had managed to persuade the US to continue arming its defence via NATO? |
| 1:08.2 | We'll be answering your questions on that and more with our expert panel. This is |
| 1:12.4 | Ukrainecast. Ukraine cast from BBC News. Life is not safe in Ukraine, nor we're in Ukraine. We've had |
| 1:19.4 | three years of bloody conflict now. We need to get to that lasting peace. We hope we can finish |
| 1:25.0 | this war this year. President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker. |
| 1:30.4 | Biden will just enemy. |
... |
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