Trump's sanctions, Putin's nuclear drills, and Zelensky's poll ratings
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the last week, Volodymyr Zelensky failed to secure long-range Tomahawk missiles from Donald Trump during a reportendly heated meeting. Then, a planned summit in Budapest between the US and Russian presidents was called off by Trump who said it would have been a ‘waste of time’.
But, the White House has now increased the pressure on the Kremlin announcing sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, a first for the Trump administration since his return to office. But will these sanctions be enough to push Putin to the negotiating table? Or will the Kremlin see them as an escalation?
And as European leaders join Zelensky in insisting that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine should start with freezing the current front line, how should we interpret the Ukrainian leader's language?
To answer your questions, Lucy and Vitaly are joined by the BBC’s Europe Digital Editor Paul Kirby and senior digital journalist Laura Gozzi. The team also discuss the EU’s plan for using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine and what, if anything, Ukraine is doing to combat propaganda within Russia.
Today’s episode is presented by Lucy Hockings and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Rufus Gray, Clare Williamson and Julia Webster. The technical producer was James Piper. 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. |
| 0:06.5 | Conspiracy theories really can impact the way the world works. |
| 0:10.0 | Disinformation, you think you're winning. |
| 0:12.3 | There could be a thousand deep face. |
| 0:14.0 | But it's because of you, we work 24-7 to verify the facts with digital tools and reporters on the ground. |
| 0:21.8 | BBC News, Moscow, Lecoeur, in the West Bank. |
| 0:24.6 | So, no matter how quickly disinformation spreads, we'll be ready. |
| 0:30.0 | The fight for truth is on. |
| 0:32.6 | Trust is earned. This is our BBC. |
| 0:36.4 | It's 1,338 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:42.4 | In the last seven days, we've seen one summit fail to come up with anything |
| 0:46.1 | and another one called off before it even happened. |
| 0:49.0 | Those Tomahawk missiles that we talked about here last week |
| 0:51.6 | won't be going to Ukraine any time soon |
| 0:54.0 | after President Zelensky's frank and apparently very tense meeting. that we talked about here last week, won't be going to Ukraine any time soon. |
| 0:58.3 | After President Zelensky's frank and apparently very tense meeting with President Trump failed to achieve any breakthroughs. |
| 1:02.1 | Shortly after we finished recording Tuesday's podcast, |
| 1:04.4 | we had news as well that that much talked about meeting |
| 1:06.6 | between President Trump and Putin and Budapest, was going to be postponed indefinitely. |
| 1:11.8 | Then, on Wednesday evening, an announcement from the Trump administration, |
| 1:15.8 | new sanctions targeting Russia's two largest oil companies |
| 1:19.2 | and an effort to pressure Moscow to negotiate a peace deal. |
... |
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