Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the ongoing negotiations on the Russia-Ukraine war taking place in Switzerland

Ukrainian officials are expressing their thanks to the US, following disgruntled comments from the US President.

Officials from both sides are negotiating details of the proposed 28-point peace plan in Switzerland,  which includes Ukraine ceding territory and reducing its military.

Earlier this morning, Donald Trump accused Ukrainian leaders of showing zero gratitude over US peace efforts.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey unpacked the ongoing discussions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Devin Gray UK correspondence with US. Hello, Gevin, hi there, Okay,
how are the negotiations going over Ukraine?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, it would appear progress if you listen to those
on the American side. It did to be fair the
Ukrainians as well, suggesting that there is progress that the
Americans are listening to what they want more. The US
Secretary of State Marco Rubia said a quote tremendous amount
of progress in honing this plan, which has been cautiously

(00:28):
welcomed by Russia, but certainly the leaders of Ukraine and
indeed Europe are not comfortable with it at all. We're hoping,
of course, those amendments will be more in Ukraine's favor.
But I'm just trying to pick apart the plans, the
counter proposal peace plans by Europe which were unveiled last
night amid some kind of secrecy, it would appear and

(00:51):
what is different to the American plans, and there's a
little bit of tinkering around the side. Very interesting that
they are considering offering Russia to come back into the
G eight group of nations. Of course, we know that
Vladimir Putin's always been rather had his nose put out
of place by that when they were annexed from the
G eight back in twenty fourteen when they took on Crimea.

(01:14):
And they're also saying that the sanctions, if agreed, would
be slowly withdrawn over Russia if peace is agreed, and
I suppose in other highlights, the European plan look at
holding elections as soon as possible in Ukraine after the
signing of a peace agreement. That's very similar to what
Donald Trump's plan had suggested the size of the Ukraine
military cap tod eight hundred thousand in peacetime, NATO agreeing

(01:38):
not to permanently stationed troops in Ukraine, but also saying
that NATO fighter jets will be stationed across the border
in Poland, and saying that the article in NATO where
an attack on one member is an attack on all
members very much now on the table and wanting to
be enshrined into any peace deal.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Okay, now, what do we know about this case as
being reported of a Romanian grooming gang and the ringleader
they are being offered about fifteen hundred pounds to be deported.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, criminals are in this country, of course, if they
are foreign criminals and face and a sentence of over
about a year are therefore compulsorily compulsorily just considered for deportation.
Now in this case, the government is also looking at
cases where it considers it cheaper to offer somebody about

(02:33):
three and a half thousand New Zealand dollars just to
leave the country, because they consider that cheaper than going
through the courts and trying to get that deportation or
to underway. In this instance, that offer of three and
a half thousand New Zealand dollars appears to have been
made to the ringleader of a Romanian grooming gang in

(02:54):
prison a waiting trial for ten rapes. Now, obviously this
is not what is meant to happen. The thirty eight
year olders are thoroughly a nasty piece of work according
to the evidence, raping, drugging, exploiting, violnable women in Scotland.
And yet this offer was made that must it appear,
have been a mistake. What's more amazing is that during

(03:14):
this court case it would appear that his right to
remain in the UK was extended. And that's because that's
all part of the EU settlement scheme, where a member
of the European Union can live in the UK on
a semi permanent basis. So the idea that that again
did not take into account of what was happening in

(03:34):
the courts is quite extraordinary and shows I'm afraid more
chaos at the heart of these systems.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, it must be driving voters absolutely nuts. Now, would
you have paid one point seven eight million pounds for
a watch that came from the Titanic and.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
No, But what a remarkable story this is, though, the
history of this watch is absolutely amazing. So probably the
richest couple aboard the Titanic when it sank on the
fourteenth of April nineteen twelve were a couple called Isidor
Strauss and his wife Ida, and Ida was offered birth
on a lifeboat when the ship hit the iceberg, but

(04:15):
she refused, saying I would rather perish with my husband,
and indeed both did perish that night. But Isidore Strauss,
a husband who was a very well known businessman, a
Bavarian born American businessman, a politician, and the co owner
of Macy's department store in New York, also had this
amazing and very expensive gold pocket watch, and in the aftermath,

(04:37):
in the days after the awful sinking, his body was discovered,
as was the pocket watch, and the watch had stopped
the exact moment that the Titanic had sunk, and they
must have lost their lives in the freezing water. And
so yeap gone and sold. It's an amazing piece of
memorabilia and fetching a price of roughly three point eight

(05:01):
million New Zealand dollars, which quite frankly is supposed to
be a record breaker for this particular type of thing.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Incredible, Hey, Gavin, thank you very much. Gavin Gray, UK
correspondent

Speaker 2 (05:09):
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