Q&A: Tomahawk missiles, the drone race, and Ukrainian Halloween
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to make his latest pitch to Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, the US is yet to announce a decision on the delivery of long range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Could Washington have given the green light behind the scenes already? Are Ukrainian claims of frontline counteroffensives being exaggerated? And which side is coming out on top when it comes to drone technology?
To answer your questions, Lucy is joined by BBC Verify’s Olga Robinson and Mikey Kay from The Security Brief on the BBC news channel. The team also discuss Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, Nato military exercises and Halloween celebrations in Ukraine.
Today’s episode is presented by Lucy Hockings.
The producers were Laurie Kalus and Julia Webster. The technical producer was Jonny Baker. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The series producer is Chris Flynn. 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. |
| 0:07.3 | I'm sure there used to be quiet news days. |
| 0:10.4 | Not anymore. |
| 0:11.5 | These days, the news never stops, and nor do we. |
| 0:14.4 | That's why there are new episodes of newscasts seven days a week. |
| 0:17.7 | And sometimes even that isn't enough. |
| 0:19.8 | Listen to newscast every day on BBC |
| 0:21.8 | Sounds. It's 131 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And in a week where events |
| 0:29.9 | in the Middle East have been dominating the headlines, international attention is gradually |
| 0:34.5 | turning back towards Ukraine. President Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, even Donald Trump, |
| 0:39.8 | have all suggested that bringing an end to Russia's invasion |
| 0:42.4 | is now top of their diplomatic wish lists. |
| 0:45.6 | But what, if anything, has changed? |
| 0:48.7 | Well, Tomahouk missiles continue to drive discussion, |
| 0:51.2 | members of the Trump administration publicly flirting |
| 0:53.7 | with bolstering Kiev's long-range capability. Moscow, though, members of the Trump administration publicly flirting with bolstering |
| 0:54.5 | Kiev's long-range capability. Moscow, though, is sounding the alarm, an ironclad commitment |
| 0:59.7 | is yet to materialise. So can President Zelensky capitalise on an upcoming visit to the White |
| 1:05.4 | House on Friday and persuade his American counterpart to turn up the pressure on Putin? |
| 1:10.9 | As always, plenty of you have been getting in touch with your questions on the war, |
| 1:14.4 | and our team are here to answer them on this episode of UkraineCast. |
| 1:19.1 | Ukrainecast from BBC News. |
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