What do we actually know about the Istanbul peace talks?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The world is holding its breath ahead of mooted peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday. But what are the discussions likely to look like, and crucially who will attend?
With Donald Trump on a tour of the Gulf nations, the White House says it plans to send senior representatives to Turkey, while hinting that the US President could yet make a personal appearance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile, has confirmed he will travel to the capital Ankara, and doubled down on his challenge to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to meet face-to-face.
To decipher all the briefing and counter-briefing, we’re joined in the studio by the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Landale. And Victoria speaks to the Vice President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Ben Carter and Laurie Kalus. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Hello, it's 1,175 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:10.0 | And we're still all guessing as to whether Vladimir Putin will meet Volodymy Zelensky for talks to end the war. |
| 0:17.3 | In Turkey, on Thursday. |
| 0:19.4 | Here's what President Trump had to say about this on Monday afternoon. |
| 0:23.1 | Don't underestimate Thursday in Turkey. President Erdogan is going to be a great host, but I think |
| 0:29.7 | you're going to have maybe a good meeting. The potential for a good meeting that a meeting wasn't |
| 0:33.7 | going to take place, I insisted that that meeting take place. And I believe the two leaders were going to be there. I was thinking about flying over. I don't know where I'm going to be on Thursday. I've got so many meetings. But I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen. But we've got to get it done. We've got to save 5,000 lives a week. Five thousand lives |
| 0:54.3 | are really more than that, worse than that. So we're working very hard to see if we can |
| 0:59.3 | end that bloodbath. So we're recording this at 1449 UK time. We still don't know if Vladimir |
| 1:05.7 | Putin is going. The Kremlin said they will announce who's going to Turkey in due course. |
| 1:13.4 | Vladimir Zelensky and his officials are saying that they're only going to talk to Vladimir Putin. |
| 1:18.8 | That's not to say that if there's a lower level representative, a lower level Ukrainian official is going to talk to them, but uncertainty persists. |
| 1:28.2 | Yeah. Would President Trump's presence increase the likelihood of President Putin and Zelensky |
| 1:33.2 | actually meeting? Lots to unpick in this episode of Ukraine cast. Ukraine cast from BBC News. |
| 1:40.3 | Life is not safe in Ukraine, nowhere in Ukraine. We've had three years of bloody conflict now. |
| 1:45.3 | We need to get that lasting peace. |
| 1:47.4 | We hope we can finish this war this year. |
| 1:50.5 | President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into Uncle Zucker. |
| 1:54.6 | Biden will just enemy. |
| 1:56.0 | Trump is a rival. |
| 1:57.4 | Ukrainians will pay lives for this decision. |
... |
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