US says Ukraine return to pre-war borders 'unrealistic'
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The new US defence secretary has delivered an uncompromising message to Ukraine three years after Russia's full-scale invasion began, saying Nato membership is unrealistic. We get a response from Ukraine's former prime minister.
Also on the programme: A BBC investigation has uncovered allegations that the energy giant Shell ignored repeated warnings that a one-billion-dollar clean-up operation of polluted land in southern Nigeria has been beset by problems and corruption and why a Dublin city councillor is campaigning for the removal of key lockboxes.
(Photo: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group on the eve of a Nato defence ministers' meeting at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 12 February, 2025. Credit: Johanna Geron/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsAar from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.8 | We're coming to you live from London. I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:10.3 | And we're going to begin today in Ukraine and these questions. |
| 0:13.9 | Will President Trump manage to get both Ukraine and Russia around the negotiating table? |
| 0:19.4 | And what will it take to end the war? Almost exactly three years after Russia's full-scale invasion. |
| 0:25.7 | The White House has set a deadline of 100 days for a deal, and today in an interview with the Guardian newspaper, President Zelensky said he would be willing to offer Russia an exchange of territory, |
| 0:41.0 | giving up land that Ukraine is occupied in Russia's Kursk region in return for territory captured by Russia, although he didn't specify where. |
| 0:46.1 | Well, that proposal got short shrift from the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov |
| 0:50.3 | on a call with reporters this morning. |
| 0:58.0 | It is impossible. |
| 1:03.3 | Russia has never discussed and will not discuss the issue of exchange in its territory. |
| 1:06.8 | Of course, Ukrainian units will be expelled from there. |
| 1:09.9 | All who are not destroyed will be expelled. |
| 1:16.9 | And then there's this. Just a few minutes ago, the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth, |
| 1:24.1 | addressing NATO members in Brussels and talking about how the Trump administration views the war in Ukraine. We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. |
| 1:31.0 | But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic |
| 1:38.1 | objective. |
| 1:40.6 | Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering. |
| 1:46.1 | A durable peace for Ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again. |
| 1:54.9 | This must not be Minsk 3.0. |
| 1:59.5 | That said, the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a |
| 2:07.6 | realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by |
... |
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