Q&A: Victory Day, Xi Jinping and Moscow dog-walking
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Who’s attending Friday’s Victory Day parade in Russia? Could President Xi of China present his own ceasefire plan? And what’s going on with the coalition of the willing?
The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and BBC Moscow producer Ben Tavener are on hand to answer these questions from listeners and more.
Today’s episode is presented by Jamie Coomarasamy and Vitaly Shevchenko.
The producers were Laurie Kalus and Ben Carter. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. 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 1,170 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:10.3 | And right now, as we record on Thursday, Vitali, |
| 0:13.3 | nations across Europe are celebrating VE Day |
| 0:16.0 | that marks the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. |
| 0:21.6 | There'll be blue at the war. |
| 0:28.6 | We give thanks for the selfless and costless sacrifice |
| 0:34.6 | of all who were called to duty at home and abroad in the service of this nation. |
| 0:42.4 | Let us pray for the wealth... |
| 0:43.8 | The friend and I, I think we ran into the road and we held a poor unsuspecting motorist, |
| 0:52.6 | and we said, the walls are over. |
| 0:55.3 | Come and have a cup of tea. |
| 0:57.4 | He parked his car and we celebrated. |
| 1:05.1 | Now, as we know, Russia marks that day tomorrow on May the 9th. |
| 1:09.4 | It's called Victory Day there. But that three-day ceasefire, |
| 1:13.6 | let's turn to that. It was unilaterally announced by the Kremlin 10 days ago. It was due to start |
| 1:18.3 | at midnight today. So, Vitaly, what do we know? It's not holding, unsurprisingly. Russia and Ukraine |
| 1:26.6 | have been trading accusations of violating it. |
| 1:30.9 | The Defence Ministry in Moscow has said that Ukraine has made two fresh attempts to cross into Russia's Kursk region, |
| 1:41.5 | and also that Ukraine has attacked Russian positions in an occupied part of Ukraine's |
| 1:48.0 | Donetsk region. Ukraine is saying that Russia has committed 734 ceasefire violations, including 63 |
| 1:57.6 | assault, some of which are still ongoing. the foreign minister of Ukraine, Andri Sabija |
... |
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