Enda Brady: UK correspondent ahead of Trump and Putin's meeting to discuss Ukraine

Donald Trump is set to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming hours, and there's fresh concerns ahead of the meeting.

Trump is hoping to get agreement on a 30-day ceasefire proposal accepted by Ukraine last week. 

UK correspondent Enda Brady unpacked the concerns about Ukraine's future ahead of the meeting.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ukraine. The war continues, and we have Donald Trump and
we have Vladimir Putin having a call tonight our time,
hopefully to get the Russians to agree to the peace
deal that the US is broken, that Ukraine has already
agreed to. That's the goal of the meeting. Indo Brady's
UK correspondence with US tonight, Hi Ininda.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey Ryan, good to speak to you again.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Good to speak to you too. So these two leaders
are going to speak tonight and we're hoping to get
some resolution. What's the feeling over your way of whether
we might.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I think the overwhelming emulsion in today is one of fear,
because this is the phone call where they will effectively
be carving up Ukrainian land and assets and deciding who
gets what now. We haven't seen any intimation from Vladimir
Putin that he will bend or he will concede anything.

(00:53):
Everything seems to be very much on his terms. Trump
seems to be very much on his side. He has
already told Zelenski he holds no cards whatsoever. We've seen
that said to his face in the Whitehouse. So this
is not a negotiation. A lot of people in Europe
are just worried today that this will be effectively handing
Putin exactly what he wants, and once he gets what

(01:16):
he wants in Ukraine, the big question everyone else in
Europe has is what next? What will he stop at?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, and I guess I mean there'll be some around
the world who'll say, well, Europe, this is sort of
in a way, you're own making too, because you abdicated
your own responsibilities. And I don't mean you enda you
know that you're educated its own responsibilities for securing its
defense capabilities, and therefore you know, when someone like Trump

(01:45):
comes along and takes America out of the picture, well
this happens, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
I'd have issues with that because I think Germany and
the UK have stepped up. There has been huge support
militarily financially in terms of training soldiers as well, certainly
from the UK. The Germans have given more than anyone
else in Europe. So Europe has done as much as
it can. Certainly some countries could have done more. But

(02:12):
I think today will be a very sad day if
this pans out. As people are expecting that a phone
call goes from Trump to Putin, many people questioning that
relationship stroke friendship and Putin, having waged three years of
an illegal war, gets exactly what he wants. So basically
today will be all about dividing up Ukraine's land and

(02:34):
who gets the power stations. And I don't see anything
that will come out of this phone call that will
make Putin think I can stop now. I mean, you
know the huge theories that we're in a Neville Chamberlaine moment,
and we get Trump tonight waving a little bit of
white paper saying that he's got peace in our time.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, let's go to King Charles. He's had a meeting
with the new Canadian Prime minister. What's that four?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, check out what he wore a white shirt and
a red tie on King Charles of Canada when he
met Mark Carney. So look, they know each other. Carney
was Governor of the Bank of England for almost seven
years here, so he is very much embedded in British
life and the establishment here, and he has many friends
in Europe. And Carney's whistle stop tour took him to

(03:23):
Paris first and then London, so in the space of
less than twenty four hours, he has spent time with
President Macron, Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister and King Charles.
So this is not a message to the Canadian people.
This is a message to the White House because traditionally
Canada's new Prime minister always makes his first foreign trip

(03:44):
to Washington, DC. And this is what Mark Karney has done.
Make no mistake, he has huge support in Europe and
as was evidenced with the reception, he got a Bookingham Palace.
King Charles very very much on side, wearing Canadian colors.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Now the steps you've got on your hands on showing
one in ten UK adults are on benefits for sickness.
That is a massive number, is it not?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
It is and it's a huge talking point this week
as Keir Starmer tries to address the issues. So he's
saying that there's not the money there to support the
welfare state and that he needs to shave and shave
is a loose definition. Ten billion dollars off benefits in
the UK and the stat has come out to back

(04:31):
up what the Prime Minister is doing. That ultimately, one
in ten adults of working age are getting some financial
benefits for being on sick leave. Now, this has gone
through the roof since COVID I don't quite know how
he fixes it because a lot of people don't want
full time work. So we've got nine point two million
adults here doing nothing, contributing nothing as well, in addition

(04:55):
to the one in ten on sick leave and benefits,
there's nine million who don't pay any tax, don't contribute,
and everyone else is carrying them. So it's a huge,
huge headache. But look, this has built up over many,
many years. Starmar is just the first to kind of
come along and say, okay, let's fix it. But we
haven't heard how what the plan is.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
So these people on welfare like government welfia chicks or
are they yes? All right, that's massive.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, it's costing billions and billions of dollars. And I
think you know, speak to people. This is a conversation
down the pub. When you speak to people, the suspicion
is an awful lot of people are swinging the lead.
And I'll probably get killed for saying this out loud
on air. But mental health issues since COVID seem to
be a major factor and a lot of people are

(05:46):
on benefits since COVID citing mental health reasons. And I
think Starmar's government have looked at the sums and they've realized,
you know, how can this have been so bad in
the last three years? And COVID is the issue, But
how he can start telling people to go back to
work if they're claiming they're genuinely ill. I just that's
a conversation for you and your GP. I guess what

(06:08):
stays behind closed doors stay behind closed doors. But Starmer
has got a huge, huge problem on his hands here.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah in the Thank you very much to the ind
of Brady, a UK correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy
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