“The Russian people have a high degree of apathy when it comes to Putin.”Putin’s grip on the Russian people is vulnerable to just “snapping” as they wake up to impacts of oil shortages, says former US special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“One by one we can take you out.”Ukraine is “causing Putin pain” by taking out Russia’s oil infrastructure and strategic bomber fleet, says former Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“They’re time limited.”Putin has failed to gain more than 0.9 per cent of Ukrainian territory this year, but has lost 400,000 Russians in the process, says Scott Lucas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Russia's attempt to surge to put pressure on Kyiv over peace talks is coming at a high casualty cost, says Maxim Tucker the Times' Ukraine correspondent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“The frontline has not collapsed, despite what they want us to believe.”Ukraine’s MOD says they have taken back about 20 per cent of Pokrovsk, says former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"Russia have to reckon with the fact that Donald Trump has three more years in the white House. Is he going to be a lame duck president in a year's time?"Putin's scepticism for Trump's appeal to Russia and favourable peace deals is based in his mistrust of MAGA's ability to avoid collapse, warns John Lough, Head of Foreign Policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"Kyiv and the Europeans held out. They don't accept the plan and importantly, Marco Rubio, who does not like the Witkoff - Kushner plan, he's the head of the US delegation." US figures are worried about Steve Witkoff's role in peace talks after leaks suggested he had been coaching Russian representatives on manipulating Trump, Prof. Scott Lucas discusses the latest on Frontline with Louis Sykes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“If the US, along with Europe, pressurize Russia more, and we will continue as well with our deep strikes…this may bring Russia to the negotiating table whether they want it or not.”Putting pressure on Putin’s economy could be the key to Ukraine winning the war as it's in “a very poor state at the moment” and has no hope of improving, says former advisor to the minister of defence of Ukraine, Yuriy Sak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“The tone of the call is viewing Russia as a partner… and Ukraine as an object...that is troubling.”The leaked transcript of Witkoff reportedly ‘coaching’ Russian officials adds to the “dysfunctionality” being shown by Trump's administration over the peace plan, says former US special envoy to Ukraine Ambassador Kurt Volker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“The Russians are pretty largely stuck… and that’s pretty uncomfortable for Putin.”Putin may be “overstretching himself” by trying to stir up trouble in Nato countries while not making any advances in Ukraine, says former British ambassador Lord Ricketts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"How does this plan come out when there's little chance it's going to be accepted?"Russia's "secret" peace plan drawn up with Steve Witkoff looks unlikely to succeed as the White House begins to push back against Putin's "wishlist", Prof. Scott Lucas tells Kate Gerbeau on Frontline. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“He is literally pushing them off the balcony.”“Things aren’t all rosy in Putin’s garden”, says for British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton Gordon, after the Russian leader betrays his closest men by declaring them as foreign agents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Putin has annexed more territory than he’s actually got.”Putin will find it very difficult to get past Pokrovsk as his 12-month campaign is destroyed by greater Ukrainian arm supplies, says former British Army soldier who joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces Shaun Pinner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
"Russia knows full well that there's lots of supplies coming to it from the West and inevitably wants to target that."Bombing attacks on a Polish train and rail line into Ukraine is part of a Russian state attack according to the Polish government, Sean Bell explains why Russia would target the rail network and what the fallout could be on Frontline for Times Radio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Lavrov may have fallen out of a window.”If Putin’s scapegoat, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, has disappeared it shows the “end of the regime is nigh”, says Russia expert Diane Francis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Pokrovsk is bleeding Russia dry.”Russia is losing 700-800 men a day as Ukraine manages to keep all supply corridors to the city open, says former British diplomat Cormac Smith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“They believe Russia has lost 350,00 casualties this years so far, and they are currently losing 1008 a day.”Ukraine is eliminating Russian troops in Pokrovsk despite Putin’s propaganda trying to spin the opposite, says former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“When people raise objections to this, within the military, they are sent on what is in effect a suicide mission.”Putin’s officers are engaged in “massive corruption”, diverting resources to the Russian army, but anyone who speaks out is eliminated, says former director of operations and intelligence for the British Secret Intelligence Service Nigel Inkster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“The fact that Russian economy relies of rent payments and internal corruption that comes form oil and gas industries will have an impact on the system.”Pressures are piling up on Putin after Ukraine’s large scale attack hits 22 out of 38 large oil refineries, explains Chatham Houses’ Orysia Lutsevych. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Russia is no more than a gas station with nukes masquerading as a country. If you get rid of the gas station part…there is a potential way of imploding the Russian economy.”Russia may have to “live like North Korea for five years” as Europe and America turn their full attention to helping Ukraine, says Major General Chip Chapman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Andrew James Boulton
Ukraine constrained by immediate NATO membership . . . (1) Putin has described many times, his personal - and Russia’s historic - paranoia of Russia being invaded, particularly from the West - and now the encroachment of NATO - as the main reason for his war in Ukraine. No-one could imagine that President Trump would sanction, allow, approve, NATO or any of its member countries, to instigate an unprovoked, unilateral, invasion, and to attack Russia. With Ukraine outside NATO, no-one - not even President Trump - has such a veto over Kyiv, or the necessary control, to prevent Ukraine from ever making such an attack on Russia. With Ukraine allowed to immediately join NATO, Ukraine would be bound by all the obligations and the constraints imposed on established member states . . . which should satisfy Moscow.
Andrew James Boulton
Ukraine constrained by immediate NATO membership . . . (2) With Ukraine allowed to immediately join NATO, Ukraine would in-turn be provided with the only realistic guarantee that would ensure their own long-term security . . . which would satisfy Kyiv. If President Trump can not convince Putin of all the above logic, then the President is not the “deal maker” he likes to believe himself to be.