I welcome Anatole Levin, the director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Anatole, a very good evening to you. What is your expectation of the continuing conversations of the U.S., of the Kremlin and the Trump White House,

ostensibly about Ukraine, but they seem to be finding other topics.

Does this mean they're getting along or does this mean that they left Ukraine out of the conversation

and are going to find other things to talk about? Good evening to you.

Hello John. Well, one possible or possibly viable way forward in these talks has been for the Russia to reestablish, sorry, the U.S. to reestablish its relationship with Russia and reach agreements, reach compromises

on specifically bilateral U.S. Russian matters.

And in return for Russia to give up its maximalist demands to Ukraine, some of which simply cannot be accepted,

like Ukraine voluntarily withdrawing from more territory and Ukraine effectively disarming.

So that in principle makes good sense, but we have to see how far it will go, whether the Trump administration

is capable of a coherent policy on that. And we have to see, of course, whether Putin will bite,

or whether, in fact, the Russians are determined on at least one more, you know, big military offensive to try to take more territory.

So, you know, things are moving forward, but slowly.

I mean, the other interesting thing is that the U.S. is pulling back, it's reported, from a base that it's established in Poland.

Now, that suggests the possibility of a US-Russia deal in which NATO doesn't withdraw its troops

from Eastern Europe, as the Russians have demanded, you know,

from the new NATO states established after the end of the Cold War, but the US does.

And, well, once again, we would have to see whether, you know, that would be enough for the Russians to do a deal.

I come to these talks puzzled about anecdotes we hear, whether there's credibility to them. And the one that comes to mind immediately

is that February 28th meeting at the White House had entered in unhappiness on all sides, Kiev and

Washington, Mr. Zelensky was at the White House to sign a deal about mineral rights,

rarers, exploiting some fashion of the riches of Ukraine.

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