Ukraine describes first day of talks with Russia as 'substantive'
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ukrainian representatives at the talks with Russia on a possible end of the war have described the first day of negotiations as "substantive and productive". Newshour hears from injured Ukrainian soldiers and gauges public opinion inside the country.
Also in the programme: the New START nuclear treaty expires; and iguanas on the menu in Miami.
(Picture: An elderly woman pulls a sled with her belongings during the distribution of humanitarian aid brought by volunteers to a church amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, near the town of Popasna (Popasnaya) in the Luhansk region, a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine, February 4, 2026. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.2 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.7 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.6 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:16.0 | And we're going to begin with the war in Ukraine. |
| 0:18.0 | And the three-way talks between Kiev, Moscow and Washington that got |
| 0:21.8 | underway on Abu Dhabi today. Not so much about the talks themselves. All we know from public |
| 0:27.0 | statements is that so far they've been productive and that they'll continue on Thursday. |
| 0:32.4 | But more about what seems to be the crux of the negotiations. What will happen to Ukraine's |
| 0:37.0 | eastern Dombas region, |
| 0:38.7 | which is now largely occupied by Russian forces? Moscow wants full control of the land as the price for peace. |
| 0:46.2 | Ukraine's president of Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly said it's a price he can't pay. |
| 0:52.0 | But what about the people of Ukraine as they continue to shiver during one of the |
| 0:55.8 | coldest winters for years, made much worse by Russia's pulverizing of its energy infrastructure? |
| 1:02.4 | What do they think? From Ukraine, Sarah Rainsford reports. |
| 1:09.1 | Daniel plunges into a swimming pool in full scuba kit. |
| 1:13.7 | The young soldier only has one flipper though because he stepped on a landmine this winter |
| 1:18.6 | and he lost his left foot. |
| 1:21.3 | He says diving like this helps him to cope with the physical pain and with the tough memories. |
| 1:26.8 | On this side of the swimming pool there are local residents calmly swimming lengths up and down, |
| 1:31.5 | but deep beneath them under the water are the soldiers in the scuba kit who are flipping |
| 1:37.2 | in the other direction. |
... |
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