Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on Europe's support for Zelenskyy, US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia, Far-right threat to German government,

US Ukraine talks are headed to Saudi Arabia next week, with President Zelensky saying he hopes it'll be a meaningful meeting.

It has been revealed around 20 countries are now interested in joining what's being called a coalition of the willing to help Ukraine.

They're largely taken from the Commonwealth and from Europe, spearheaded by the UK and France. 

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey talks to Ryan Bridge. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray's are UK correspondent Gavin good evening hither So
Zelensky and EU leaders, they've got the show of unity going.
They are all singing from the same song ship. We're
not quite all of the European leaders, but many of
them are joining on board for the coalition.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, but you're right, no, not all of them are
on the same page on this, of course. Now the
US Ukraine talks appear to be heading to Saudi Arabia
next week, President Zelenski saying that he hopes it'll be
a meaningful meeting. In other words, security guarantees for him
and probably mineral agreement rights for America. So a lot

(00:38):
at stake here, but he'll come, I think, slightly buoyed
by the fact that it's been revealed around twenty countries
and now interested in joining what's been called a coalition
of the willing to help Ukraine. Now, not all the
countries are offering troops necessarily on the ground, indeed, probably
far from it, but some could provide other support. They're

(00:59):
largely taken from the Commonwealth and from Europe, spearheaded by
the UK and France, and the Prime Minister of the
UK Sekistama really believes that this is the way forward
that once a peace deal is struck, and it does
look like we're perhaps edging that way after Ukraine's hand
is being forced by the US. How it is implemented,
and Europe simply does not trust Vladimir Putin to maintain

(01:24):
the peace if there is no peacekeeping force within and
over Ukraine. So they want air support, they want troops
on the ground. And combined with all this, Europe has
announced a massive package of the roughly one point five
trillion New Zealand dollars in defense, which the European Commission

(01:45):
President Ursula Vanderlion said was important and a watershed moment
for Europe.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's got to Germany. We've got five members of a
far right group there have been jailed for plotting driver
throw the government, kidnap the health minister.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. The group were associated with something called Citizens of
the Reich, whose followers believed that the German Empire continues
to exist today even though it collapsed in nineteen eighteen,
and investigators say it was led by Heinrich, the thirteenth
Prince Rus, a German Aristocat. Anyway, five members of this

(02:20):
group have been jailed. Now four of the group were
described as ring leaders, and it has been called a
terrorist organization, and what they wanted to do was to
use violence to trigger civil warlike conditions in Germany. And
they hoped that as they started their campaign they would
be joined by disgruntled members of the security forces and

(02:41):
also just disgruntled people who would join their campaign. Now,
the group had planned to kidnap the health minister called
Karl Lautobach. He was an advocate of very strict COVID
nineteen measures during the pandemic, and the group had said
as well that they would be quite happy to kill
his bo bodyguards if it was necessary. So this was

(03:02):
an important and an enormous threat according to the Interior Ministry.
And they'd also planned to sabotage the power grid as
well in parts of Germany. So the four defendants described
as the ring leaders were sentenced in between five and
nine five and eight and a half years in jail.
A fifth defendant received a two year ten month sentence

(03:26):
following an almost two year trial.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Ram goodness, mate, Devin, thank you very much for that,
Devin Gray, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
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