Jimmy Rushton: Foreign Policy and Security Analyst on the latest developments between Russia, Ukraine, and Trump

Donald Trump says the tone and spirit of this morning's conversation with Russian's President Vladimir Putin were excellent. 

This comes following a two-hour call between the two leaders, with Trump now saying Ukraine and Russia will immediately start working towards a ceasefire. 

He's reportedly also wrapped up a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Kyiv-based Foreign Policy and Security Analyst Jimmy Rushton told Mike Hosking Putin has Trump right where he wants him, and he's clearly being manipulated and worked by Putin. 

He says Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are simply making things up as they go along. 

He says they keep talking to Putin about this 'destructive war', but he doesn't care, even about the lives of his own people. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the early hours of our morning, the US President,
as you well aware, hit the phone. So you had
a chat with Zelensky, had a chat with Putin. So
where are we at? Key based foreign policy and security
analyst Jimmy Rushden back with us. Jimmy morning, Good morning.
I'm very well and doing. I'm trying to work out
what actually happened. Apart from the you know, the nicest
he's about it all is anyone getting together to actually
talk about ending the war, and you know, I don't

(00:20):
know ending the war.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Not much happened, to be honest. Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin had a lovely chat and apparently called each other
by first names, and then did the kind of lovers
you know, the scene the romantic comedy where that each
one tries to tell the other to hang up first.
It was kind of It's really surreal to see a

(00:44):
US president essentially engaging in this dance with Putin, who
is clearly manipulating him, and it's clearly working him like
the you know, the ex KGB officer that he is.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
So the Pope got involved and said, you can use
my place of you is anybody using anybody's place to
do anything? Or is this just another week of Turkey
Turkey Turkey, whoops, nothing happened.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, I think that the reason why Turkey is traditionally
used is because the Turks are trusted by both sides.
I think the Pope is obviously he's been very strong
pro Ukrainian. He met with Zelensky. It was actually his
first foreign leader that he met. You know, I think
that there you could argue that there has been a

(01:28):
positive step in regards to this prisoner exchange, this one
thousand for a thousand, which is apparently going to go
through in the next couple of days. But you know,
prisoner exchange has happened, happening throughout the war really that
you know, they've they've been kind of indirect contacts through
the UAE and other third party countries to arrange these. So,
you know, it's there's really not a lot to talk

(01:50):
about it. It's Donald Trump again getting played by Putin
and not really understanding.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
I'm glad that's exactly my scenes. Yeah, what what do
I just don't know who to believed? Do I believe
Ruby ol Jeddi Vance? So one day they're saying, look,
you guys sought this out or we're out, or Rubiosi
said the other day, we're here until we get peaced, which.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Is I don't even think they know. To be honest,
I think Rubio obviously he's a traditional kind of hawkish Republican,
and if he was president, he'd be handling this extremely differently.
With Vance. I think he generally tries to say anything
that he feels will resonate with the base and you know,
please Trump. We saw that in the Oval office, for example,

(02:30):
when they had that massive bust with Zelenski. And yeah,
I think there is a large case of really making
it up as they go along. They really don't have
this set goal. They think that they can, you know,
appeal to Putin's better interest to keep talking about this
destructive war where loads of people are dying, but Putin
just doesn't care about the lives of either his own
people or obviously Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
No, exactly, all right, Jimmy will starting touch pretty sure.
Jimmy Rushdan out of Cooper or next morning for more
from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks
it'd be from sex Am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.