Q&A: Middle East escalation, Russia’s threat to Nato and fibre optic drones

Ukrainecast

BBC

News Commentary, News

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As oil prices rise, is escalation in the Middle East between Israel and Iran a positive development for Russia? How successful has Ukraine been in downing Russia’s fibre optic drone capacity? And is the Kremlin really intent on extending its invasion beyond Nato borders?

Lucy and Vitaly answer all that, and discuss the impact of the latest western sanctions with BBC Verify’s Olga Robinson and Matthew Savill of the Royal United Services Institute. The producers were Laurie Kalus and Polly Hope. The technical producer was James Piper. 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	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.7	It's 1,212 days since Russia invaded Ukraine.
0:09.1	And this week, it's a tale of two conflicts.
0:12.0	We're into the seventh day of Israel's Operation Rising Line against Iran,
0:16.0	and the crisis in the Middle East continues to escalate.
0:19.3	But what does this mean for the war in Ukraine?
0:21.9	Could it prompt more Western sanctions?
0:24.4	And with this NATO summit just around the corner,
0:26.8	its global diplomatic attention once again being drawn away from Ukraine.
0:31.1	You've been sending in lots of questions,
0:32.9	so we've assembled a top team to try and answer them
0:35.1	in this episode of Ukrainecast.
0:37.7	Life is not safe in Europe. assembled a top team to try and answer them in this episode of Ukrainecast. Ukraine cast from BBC News.
0:40.2	Life is not safe in Ukraine.
0:42.3	No, we're in Ukraine.
0:43.2	We've had three years of bloody conflict now.
0:45.2	We need to get to that lasting peace.
0:47.3	We hope we can finish this war this year.
0:50.4	President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker.
0:54.5	Biden will just enemy. Trump is arrival.
0:57.3	Ukrainians will pay lives for this decision.
0:59.5	You're gambling with World War III.
	...

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