Russia & Ukraine Meet in Istanbul to Talk Peace

Russia & Ukraine Meet in Istanbul to Talk Peace

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, is my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
We cannot let anybody forget that there is still war
going on between Ukraine and Russia, and there's always some distractions,
things that you know, are popping up. But there maybe
could see a little bit of positivity as we work
through towards the summer. Here take me through the latest

(00:22):
on the possibility of some peace stocks between these two nations.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, I can tell you that in the last hour
Ukraine delegation has arrived in Istanbul, Turkey for talks with
a team from Russia. Expectations are pretty low, and no
one is thinking that these teams are going to get
together and hammer out a cease five deal, much less
at an end to the war. But of course the

(00:47):
first face to face meeting in seven weeks is at
least a step forward, and they must imagine they can
get some kind of outcome that could involve a swap
between prisoners of war, perhaps the swap of the sea soldiers,
and perhaps even the return of children adopted by Russia.
And perhaps, if we're being very optimistic, the President Zelenski

(01:08):
has hinted they could start preparing for somewhere down the
line himself meeting the Russian leader Vladimir Pussin talks, which
Istanbul in Turkey, the country has offered a host as well.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I wonder, you know, I'm always thinking about kind of
how the United States is positioned here, because it's important
that this is happening for Ukraine and for Russia, but
for the entire world. But it's also interesting to see
what role of the United States will play now. I
know that Donald Trump put a timeline essentially like a
fifty day timeline on Putin in Russia to secure a

(01:42):
ceasefire or kind of a peace agreement with Ukraine before
he slaps him with you know, tariffs or you know,
I'm not exactly sure what exactly all of the parameters
could end up being if that got to that point.
Was that the nudge that Russia needed to really get
to the table seriously here?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Perhaps? Although Russia's played down its response to President Trump's ultimatum,
Reuter's reporting three sources close to the game list with
the Kremlin saying that Vladimir Putin was unshased and is
keep on fighting, is going to keep on fighting until
Ukraine agrees to his terms for peace. In the fact

(02:22):
that he made him wide in his territorial demands. President
Trump did set the clock ticking though, for fifty days
from last week so early September. That's when he says
Russia must strike a CEASEPAR deal with Ukraine or he
will bring in strict financial measures, specifically secondary tariffts. In
other words, for any country that continues to trade with

(02:46):
Russia will face a big tax when they come to
sell their products to the United States. So essentially trying
to tackle Russia's economy by using Russia's trading partners to
put extra pressure on them. Of course, the other bit
of pressure coming from the Trump in minute was the
confirmation that further weapons weapons he called top of the
line it would be sent to Ukraine in the coming days, weeks,

(03:07):
and months.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, speaking with Jonathan Savage here from Fox News Radio,
the weapon part of this is fascinating. It's a very
different tone that Donald Trump talks about in support of
Ukraine than was being talked about on the campaign trail
and even earlier on this year. I mean, if you
would have gone back to the day that Zelenski visited
Trump in the White House and that big blow up

(03:29):
happened in the Oval Office, and then fast forward to
July and said, Trump is you know, green lighting sending
you know, patriot missiles basically anti missile missile technology to
Ukraine in this time of need for them. I think
a lot of people would be surprised. And I think NATO,
in Mark, Ruda, in the people in NATO, all these

(03:51):
nations and how they're viewing Donald Trump is so different
than I think the relationship was in the United States
and NATO before. What about that relationship has given Donald Trump,
I guess, the kind of fortitude to continue to do
that kind of business with European nations, knowing that the
end goal is to try to defeat Russia here or

(04:12):
at least get this war to stop.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
There has been a really significant shift in President Trump's
attitude since he came to office. For early on he
was saying things that you know, you might expect coming
out of the Kremlin in terms of suggesting that Ukraine
was responsible for the war, that dressing down of President
Vladimir Zelenski in the Oval office as well, referring to

(04:38):
President Putin as a genius in many ways of a
smart guy and someone who was close to to Later
referring to Vadimir Puttin is absolutely crazy and seeing that
Vladimir Putin was the obstacle to peace. And yeah, I
think that a lot of that comes down to the
conversations he's been having and his team have been having

(04:58):
with Ukraine's other all European nations, the NATO Secretary General
Mark Russa, who's been referred to in some quarters as
the Trump whisperer for the kind of relationship you've managed
to strike up with the US President, getting him on
side and giving him what he wants from NATO the
summer is getting more European countries to stay more towards

(05:20):
their defense. There has been a bit of a I
think a bit of both sides. We see each other
in the middle in some way. But certainly what is
clear is the President Trump is more willing to support
Ukraine than he has been at any point since the
full skill invasion began back in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Very fascinating how things have shifted in a lot of
different ways. What is the next step? Right? I know
that you can't. We don't have its crystal ball. We
don't know exactly what the timeline is. You kind of
outline what the steps would be in order of you know,
just delegates and eventually, hopefully at some point it would
be the two leaders Zelenski and Putin sitting down and

(05:59):
you know, talking about how to get to an end
to the war. But as far as the role that
other countries like Turkeys, especially as they host these talks
play in this, are there ways that they can moderate
to get us to maybe a quicker resolution or is
this something that these two countries by themselves are going
to have to work out or continue to fight.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
The international community is able to play a significant role,
according to Ukraine, particularly in putting pressure on Vladimir Putin
financial pressure with additional sanctions, trying to isolate Russia diplomatically
and politically as well as economically, also military pressure by

(06:42):
making sure that Ukraine has what it needs to outlast Russia,
has what it needs to defend itself against the constant
aerial onslaught, and that includes the Patriot weapons the air
defense system that the US and other countries have pledged
to supply Ukraine with. Also wants the West to help
them put pressure on Russia by giving them the right

(07:03):
to spire those weapons against facilities on Russian territory, something
which has become a bit more common in the last
twelve months, so that that's one way in which the
West can have an influence. Countries like Turkey can have
an influence because that is a country which is a
member of NATO, but also it's a country which is
quite close to Russia, has a relationship with Russia. The

(07:25):
two leaders have a very strong relationship as well. They're
trying to position themselves as a country that can talk
to all sides. Now, whether president orly one of Turkey
has the relationship with Vladimir Putin that he can convince
him of anything, well, I think that's probably taking it
a bit far, because very few leaders the influence over

(07:46):
Vladimir Pusin to convince him of anything. The only country
that may be able to put serious, serious pressure on
Russia unilaterally would be China, because Russia has so much
reliance on China at the moment, but there's no indication
from Beijing that they're willing to change their stance on
the war.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Would it take would the United States be able to
play a role in China? Also, we're not wanting to
do that. If like let's say we get to that
fifty day cutoff, would all of a sudden the trade
deal with China kind of fall apart because they continue
to do business with Russia. You know, how is there
a fragileness to that relationship at all between Russia and
China right now?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
I don't think there's a fragileness. I think it's very
one sided. China's very much the senior partner in this.
They're able to buy Russian oil, gas, other materials that
at a knockdown rate because Russia is limited and do
it could trade with but it is also selling things
to Russia. It's selling what are described as duel use technology,

(08:47):
things that can have civilian and the military use, and
as such as being described as an enabler of the
war by NATO. I don't think that China feels open
to the idea of being put under pressure by the
United States because China and the United States also don't
have a very good relationship, and the idea that they

(09:09):
would back down in the face of US pressure I
think is unlikely at the moment. But who knows. Because
of course, as we know, China and the United States
of a somewhat symbiotic economic relationship as well, We're.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Going to have to be paying very close attention to
all the moving parts, but we are seeing at least
a little bit of progress between Ukraine and Russia. And
covering it is Jonathan Savage from Fox News Radio. Jonathan
has always great stuff. Thanks so much for being on
the show.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
Thank you.