Will Russia accept US-Ukraine peace proposals?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Volodymyr Zelensky has been in Berlin discussing peace proposals with the US, and he says they will be ready to present to Russia ‘within days’.
Today, he addressed European leaders The Netherlands' House of Representatives in The Hague.
We also discuss why Italy has joined Belgium in its opposition to the EU’s plan to send €210 billion of Russia's frozen state assets to Ukraine.
Victoria and Vitaly are joined by BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen to discuss why there is good reason to remain wary of an imminent robust peace deal.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko
The producers were Laurie Kalus and Julia Webster. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The series producer is Chris Flynn. 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. |
| 0:06.1 | Hello, it's 1,392 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:13.0 | There's lots to get into today, and we also have some news about this podcast. |
| 0:17.5 | From the start of next year, we're going to change how often we bring you new episodes. |
| 0:22.6 | Instead of weekly, we'll bring you episodes of Ukrainian cast whenever there are major developments |
| 0:27.9 | in the war and in the peace negotiations. We are still going to give you the same trusted |
| 0:33.4 | Ukrainian cast analysis and interviews diving deeper into the big moments. |
| 0:39.6 | We are, and I mean this, we are committed to keeping you up to date on Ukraine. |
| 0:45.2 | And so we hope you will keep listening when we do. |
| 0:48.3 | After Christmas, we won't be here every week. |
| 0:51.1 | And I'm really sad about that. |
| 0:52.6 | We are sad about that. |
| 0:54.1 | But Tali and I are really sad about that. We are sad about that. But Tali and I are really |
| 0:54.9 | sad about that. We have loved making this podcast despite what's going on. We have really, |
| 1:01.2 | really appreciated hearing from you. You've sent us voice notes and loads of messages. We have |
| 1:08.3 | really, really appreciated talking to the hundreds of |
| 1:13.2 | guests that we have spoken to since February 22. |
| 1:17.1 | And so many of you have spoken to us with such honesty and candor and trust. |
| 1:23.6 | So thank you for that. |
| 1:26.1 | I don't think any of us actually thought the war would still be going. |
| 1:29.7 | Maybe four years on. |
| 1:31.6 | Maybe, maybe that's just me being naive. |
... |
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