Ukraine or Russia: Whose Side Is Trump On?

Radical with Amol Rajan

BBC

Society & Culture

4.5 • 919 Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump has accused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky of being a “dictator” and doing a “terrible job”.

After a week in which the US President brought Russia's Vladimir Putin in from the cold, Nick is joined by the BBC’s former diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall and the former UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt.

What do they make of Trump appearing to blame Kyiv for the war? And how should Keir Starmer respond?

To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories and insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme make sure you hit subscribe on BBC Sounds. That way you’ll get an alert every time we release a new episode, and you won’t miss our extra bonus episodes either.

GET IN TOUCH: * Send us a message or a voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 * Email today@bbc.co.uk

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

This episode was made by Lewis Vickers with Nadia Gyane and Grace Reeve. Digital production was by Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.0	I've said it before. I'll say it again. The most important question in politics is whose side are you on?
0:12.0	And it's a question the world is now asking of Donald Trump.
0:16.0	Today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land. Ukraine started the war, claims Trump. They had three years to end it, and they didn't. Claims Trump. Zelensky is to blame because he's deeply unpopular, claims Trump, which is why many in
0:43.0	Europe, not least President Zelensky himself, now believe that the United States has been
0:50.4	turned, or at least its president has, and it is now not on Ukraine's side, not even a mediator,
0:57.0	but may in fact be on the side of the man from the Kremlin.
1:02.2	That is the question that we're asking on the today podcast. Amol is away. It's half term,
1:07.2	so I'm going to discuss that with the BBC's former diplomatic correspondent and Russia expert,
1:12.3	Bridger Kendall, and the former Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Let's do it.
1:16.7	Hello, it's Nick in a pop-up today podcast studio, which is a glamorous way of describing a bedroom in a hotel in Dusseldorf in Germany.
1:40.7	I'm here to report on the German elections where there is one figure dominating
1:46.6	the election that takes place on Sunday. It's not the guy expected to be the next chancellor,
1:52.3	Friedrich Merz. It's not the current chancellor. It's not even the leader of the alternative for
1:57.1	Deutschland, the far right party that is on the rise. No, here, as in so many places around the world,
2:04.2	the figure dominating is Donald Trump and in particular what he is saying about Ukraine,
2:10.2	because it raises a question for this country as for so much of the rest of Europe. How much
2:17.0	a German citizen is prepared to spend on defending Europe?
2:21.3	And are they willing to send their own men and women into Ukraine to defend the border with Russia against a possible outbreak of war again?
2:32.3	If Putin decides in a few months or a few years that he's
2:38.0	got another chance to get what he wanted. Full control of a country insists is really Russia.
2:46.5	Do you doubt that's what he thinks? Remember that it is just under three years
	...

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