From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story.

I'm Calla MacDonald.

Two weeks.

That's the latest deadline Donald Trump has given himself to know whether a deal can be made to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Of course, we've heard this before. 24 hours, 50 days,

10 weeks. All deadlines, all ignored. In the meantime, though, the rest of the world has been

scrambling to secure terms. European leaders flew to Washington to discuss how Ukrainian borders could be protected if a deal was reached.

Kirstarmer has said Britain could help deploy troops to help protect its skies and seas,

but details have remained scarce.

And in any case, Russia's foreign minister has insisted the Kremlin should

have a veto over any post-war support.

With so much still unknown, we thought we'd bring you this conversation between Tom Newton

Dunn, who writes the Times War and Peace

newsletter, and the former UK Chief of Defence staff, General Sir Nick Carter. It was first

broadcast on another Times podcast, The General and the Journalist. The Story today, can the West guarantee Ukraine security if peace is made?

Where we are today, talks about more talks, but perhaps very little actually greed in substance,

is it much further than you thought we would be in practice pre-Alaska or are we in a better place?

No, I don't think we are necessarily in a better place. I mean, I think there is political momentum,

which of course is a good thing because, you thing because not much had been happening prior to Alaska.

But I do think that Mr. Putin would have walked away from Alaska, feeling quite pleased with what he had achieved.

I mean, after all, being greeted on U.S. soil by a U.S. president is almost the first time that's happened in two decades,

and it's the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and Mr. Putin since the war in Ukraine

...