US and Russia president set for call over the Ukraine war
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump and Vladimir Putin have confirmed they will hold talks tomorrow about ending Russia's invasion. The Kremlin has set out a number of strict conditions for agreeing a peace deal. The EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says she doesn't think President Putin is serious about ending the conflict.
Also in the programme: our reporter in Syria visits the sites of recent crimes against the Alawite community; and we speak to Belgium's Foreign Minister after Rwanda severed all diplomatic ties with its former colonial power.
(Picture: US President Donald Trump tours the Kennedy Center in Washington on March 17, 2025. Credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesbby. |
| 0:09.6 | Can President Trump get the peace deal he believes is possible in Ukraine? There have been several phone calls between the White House and the Kremlin since Donald Trump returned to power. |
| 0:20.3 | So far, we've only heard about them after the events. |
| 0:23.4 | Now, President Trump is advertising the next one, scheduled for tomorrow. |
| 0:27.9 | Critics of Mr Trump have accused him of being too close to Moscow, |
| 0:31.2 | of not being critical enough for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:36.0 | But can he be the dealmaker to bring the biggest conflict in |
| 0:39.7 | Europe since the end of World War II to an end? Speaking to reporters on board Air Force |
| 0:45.2 | 1, the president was in an optimistic mood. We'll see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. |
| 0:51.8 | I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work's been done over the |
| 0:56.5 | weekend. We want to see if we're going to bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, |
| 1:02.1 | but I think we have a very good chance. Mr. Trump laid out what he believed would be on the agenda |
| 1:07.1 | during his conversation with President Putin. I think we'll be talking about land. It's a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. |
| 1:15.8 | We'll be talking about power plants. That's a big question. But I think we have a lot of it |
| 1:23.4 | already discussed very much by both sides. Ukraine and Russia. We're already talking about that, |
| 1:31.1 | dividing up certain assets, and they've been working on that. |
| 1:35.7 | The Kremlin has not outlined what's on its agenda. Moscow simply acknowledged that the phone call |
| 1:41.9 | will take place, but politicians around Mr Putin have continued to be critical of the European country's stance on the war and continued support for Kiev. |
| 1:52.2 | Moscow has so far put several caveats in place ahead of any ceasefire deal, |
| 1:57.1 | including no NATO peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. |
| 2:00.5 | And today, as she arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, including no NATO peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. |
| 2:04.6 | And today, as she arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, |
... |
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