Zelensky says he will meet Putin for talks
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After pressure from President Trump, President Zelensky has dropped his previous insistence on a ceasefire before negotiations. He says he is prepared to meet President Putin face-to-face in Istanbul on Thursday.
Also in the programme: The US government is "actively looking at" suspending 'habeas corpus' - the right of a person to challenge their detention in court - according to one of President Trump's top aides; and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria at the end of the Second World War..
(Photo: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he addresses a joint press conference following a meeting of the 'Coalition of the willing' at the Mariinskyi Palace, the official residence of the president of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, 10 May 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. 'Coalition of the willing' leaders meet in Kyiv, Ukraine - 10 May 2025. Credit: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London. |
| 0:08.6 | My name's Paul Henley. |
| 0:10.6 | President Trump says he is starting to doubt whether Ukraine wants a peace deal with Russia. |
| 0:16.9 | His comments on his social media feed today made it clear that he thought President Zelensky should commit to attending peace talks suggested by the Kremlin that are due to take place in Istanbul this week. |
| 0:28.8 | And Mr Zelensky has now relented on his demand that Russia must call a full ceasefire in the Ukraine war starting tomorrow before meaningful talks can take place. |
| 0:38.9 | He was backed in that view by many European allies. |
| 0:42.3 | But he's no longer attaching conditions to negotiations. |
| 0:45.8 | After President Trump had this to say on Truth Social, one of our producers read it out. |
| 0:51.3 | President Putin of Russia doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, |
| 0:55.3 | but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. |
| 1:01.9 | Ukraine should agree to this, immediately. At least they will be able to determine whether or not |
| 1:07.0 | a deal is possible. And, if it is not, European leaders and the US will know where everything |
| 1:13.9 | stands and can proceed accordingly. I'm starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin, |
| 1:20.2 | who's too busy celebrating the victory of World War II, which could not have been won, |
| 1:24.6 | not even close, without the United States of America. |
| 1:27.9 | Have the meeting now. |
| 1:29.8 | Well, let's go live to Washington and speak to the BBC's North America correspondent, Jake Kwan. |
| 1:35.3 | Jake, things appear to be going President Trump's way at the moment, do they? |
| 1:40.3 | Yeah, I mean, if you look at the tweet that Mr. Trump actually put out, some of those words were in all caps that, you know, unfortunately, our producer cannot really convey in the radio. |
| 1:52.8 | But the message was very clear, have the meeting now. And we saw only minutes later, Mr. Zelensky saying that he will go to the meeting. |
| 2:01.7 | So things does seem to be moving in Washington's direction. |
| 2:05.0 | Mr. Trump seems to have been growing more and more impatient with the stalemate that has been happening. |
... |
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