Ukraine’s fading hopes

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Kate Adie presents stories from Ukraine, Serbia, Guatemala, Kenya and the Philippines.

Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in Ukraine are continuing after initial attempts to secure a ceasefire stalled. Russia has refused to support a US-led plan for a 30-day ceasefire and demanded talks about its red lines first. James Landale has been in Kyiv where he says hopes are fading for any meaningful victory.

Serbia saw its largest ever protest last weekend in the capital, Belgrade. Demonstrators blame corruption and corner-cutting by the ruling party for lives lost after a railway station collapsed last year. There have been several resignations, but the protests have only gathered momentum. Guy De Launey has been in Belgrade.

Guatemala is notorious for endemic corruption. For years, state funds ended up in the pockets of a powerful elite known as “the pact of the corrupt." In the last election, political underdog Bernardo Arevalo defied the odds and won power on an anti-corruption platform. But some are growing impatient with his lack of progress, finds Jane Chambers.

Between 2020 and 2022, the Horn of Africa suffered its worst drought in at least 40 years. The UN has thrown its support behind an initiative to help farmers fight drought through early warning systems. Peter Yeung has been to Kenya to find out more.

President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila last week and flown to the Hague. There, he faces charges of crimes against humanity over his deadly ‘war on drugs.' During his term, thousands of small-time drug dealers and users were killed without trial. Tim Mansel recalls an illuminating meeting with a priest and a pathologist.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Max Deveson Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello. Today we're in Belgrade, where smoke bombs in Parliament and the country's largest ever street protests have highlighted a deep disaffection with the political class.
0:18.2	In Guatemala, where President Arevalho secured an unlikely win on an anti-corruption
0:24.7	platform in elections in 2023. We hear whether his rhetoric matches reality. We're in Kenya,
0:32.7	where a new early warning system for farmers to mitigate against drought is catching on,
0:38.9	but some communities are wary.
0:41.9	And finally, as former Filipino President Duterte is extradited to the Hague,
0:47.3	our correspondent reflects on a telling encounter with a priest and a pathologist.
0:53.4	But first, diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in
0:56.4	Ukraine continue this weekend after initial attempts to secure a ceasefire stalled. Donald Trump
1:03.2	spoke on the phone to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia refused to support
1:09.3	a U.S.-led plan for an immediate 30-day ceasefire and demanded talks about its red lines first. President Putin did agree to pause attacks on energy facilities, but was swiftly accused by Ukraine of breaking his promise after Russian drones struck a railway power plant. All the while, European
1:29.0	governments scrambled to agree ways of supporting Ukraine if any ceasefire is agreed. James Landale's
1:36.5	in Kiev. In the heart of Kiev sits the ancient cathedral of St. Sophia. Dating back a thousand
1:43.3	years, it's the oldest building in the city, a symbol not only of
1:47.1	the origins of Ukraine's Christianity, but also its statehood from the times of the Kivian
1:52.9	Rus.
1:53.9	But I'm sitting not beneath the golden domes that have adorned many a postcard, but in the
1:58.8	old bakery to one side of the cloister where the monks used to huddle by the ovens to keep warm.
2:04.8	These days it's a bright gallery and I'm listening to a concert by a small ensemblea called Barocco Plus.
2:12.1	As you might have guessed, its repertoire is the Baroque and the musicians are giving it some welly in part they're responding to the
2:20.2	raw emotion of the music but they're also doing their best for their audience for that is composed of
2:26.7	families of those who have fallen are missing or have been taken prisoner in the three years of fighting
	...

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