Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jeanette Jalil and at 16 hours GMT on Tuesday the 24th of February, these are our main stories. As Ukrainians mark the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, President Zelensky delivers a defiant address. Western leaders visit Kyiv to show their support.
Reports say senior figures in the US military are deeply concerned that President Trump may start another long-drawn-out conflict in the Middle East. And China imposes restrictions on dual-use exports to 20 major Japanese companies. Also in this podcast, the first baby born in Britain to a mother who received a womb transplant from a dead donor.
I received that phone call and we ultimately then had to go to Oxford and have the transplant. Following that, then of course, embryo transfer and I'm still a little boy. Ukrainians are marking the fourth anniversary of what has become Europe's bloodiest conflict since the Second World War in ceremonies in Kiev and across the country.
Fierce Ukrainian resistance and hundreds of billions of dollars in Western military aid have prevented Russia from achieving what it thought would be an easy victory. This is how the start of the invasion was reported on the BBC.
Russia has launched a large-scale military assault on the country. Ukrainian politicians are describing it as an invasion.
Explosions have been heard across Ukraine in cities including the capital Kiev.
Ukraine can fight and we will fight. Our parliament had an extraordinary meeting. We provided a martial law in Ukraine and we will fight for our land. That is our country and we will definitely win.
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Chapter 2: What is President Zelensky's message on the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion?
to gain and occupy less than 1% extra of Ukrainian territory. That is not a country that four years into a conflict is winning. With more on the visits and pledges of support by Ukraine's Western allies, here's our correspondent in Kyiv, Abdul Jalil Abdurasulov.
a number of European leaders have arrived. And at the meeting of the Coalition of Willing, there were a number of speeches reiterating support for Ukraine and reiterating specific pledges that they made in the past. Kirsten mentioned about the importance of air defence systems for Ukraine, because Ukrainian cities have been...
hammered by Russian airstrikes recently, and mostly they were targeting energy facilities and power plants and substations, and therefore there's a massive energy crisis now in Ukraine because of these attacks.
Earlier, President Zelensky just complained that their Patriot systems simply had no missiles to intercept those Russian ballistic weapons, and therefore Ukraine says that they need more interceptors in order to stop those attacks.
And until President Trump came to power, it was the U.S.
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Chapter 3: How have Western leaders shown support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict?
that was the biggest backer in Ukraine's war against Russia. So it's striking, but perhaps not surprising, that no senior official from the Trump administration is there in Kiev today.
Yes, it has been already raised by journalists asking the president's press office whether anybody from the U.S. will be attending and what it means, the fact that they are not in Kiev.
Chapter 4: What concerns do US military officials have regarding potential conflict with Iran?
They haven't given any specific response to this question. However, Kiev... maintains the position that U.S. is crucial to achieve a peace deal, and the U.S. is involved directly in the peace talks. And therefore, Kyiv says that without U.S. support, without the pressure that the U.S. can apply, it will be incredibly hard to achieve a peace deal.
But there have also been complaints in Ukraine that the U.S. is supplying more pressure on Kyiv than it is on Moscow.
Chapter 5: How has China responded to Japan's military capabilities?
Kyiv is now trying to be very diplomatic. They don't directly criticize President Trump or his administration because they already had a very negative experience back in the U.S. when there was a span between President Zelensky and President Trump. And therefore, they learned the lesson that in order to win over, they cannot antagonize President Trump.
By criticizing his actions and therefore by choosing carefully the words, by saying praises to President Trump for all these actions, Ukraine hopes that President Trump can be convinced to provide greater support for Ukraine.
Abduljaleel Abdulrasulov in Kiev. Well, on this fourth anniversary, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, admitted that the war in Ukraine had changed Russia and that President Putin had not reached all his goals in what he's still calling a special military operation. Yes, it is true. All the goals of the special military operation have not yet been achieved.
Chapter 6: What is the significance of the first baby born from a womb transplant in the UK?
Many goals have already been reached, but the main one, to ensure security for people who lived and continue to live in eastern and southern Ukraine and who were in fatal danger, has not been achieved. So, yes, not all the goals have been reached yet, which is why the special military operation continues.
Western officials say that over the past three months, Russia has lost more troops than it's been able to recruit. And over the past four years, it's estimated that well over a million Russian troops have been killed or wounded, staggering losses even for a country as big as Russia. Few people there have dared to speak out publicly against the conflict after the initial protests were crushed.
But over the past year, four Russian soldiers have worked in secret with the BBC for a documentary called The Zero Line Inside Russia's War. Here's an interview with one of them, a former Russian army medical officer called Dima. Anna Foster asked him how he ended up serving in the Russian army.
They tell me if I don't go to the army, I will go to the jail.
It's very simple in Russia. It's very simple.
When you joined the fighting, what about the other soldiers? Did they feel the same way as you?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But too many people, too many people like me, nobody really understands we are fighting for what, with who, for who, just for Putin, you know, not for motherland.
you didn't want to be involved in what's known as a meat storm. It's a word that some people might not have heard before. What did it mean to you?
It's assault. Without artillery, without support from commanders, it's a one-way assault.
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Chapter 7: What historical events are commemorated in Bucha during the anniversary?
This is how rational we take territory.
And you didn't want to do that. And you wouldn't tell your men to do that either.
I have medals for medicine.
I have a medicine experience. And I will be an officer.
That's why I can't say to them, I don't do this. I can do something different.
But it's about me. Because just a regular soldier can't.
Because if
He declined the order. He will die in the next few minutes. He will be shot. He will be dead. The commander just killed him.
You saw, in some cases, when people said no, they were shot, or they had their cash cards taken away from them. And you thought that was just happening where you were, but it was happening more widely to other soldiers in the Russian army. How does that make you feel about the country that you were fighting for? What I feel about my country? No, I think... Russia is not Russia anymore.
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Chapter 8: How has the war impacted the Ukrainian population over the past four years?
to totally demolish in a short-term operation similar to the one that the United States had during the Iran-Israel war last year, where it was a one-and-done strike on a nuclear facility. This, it appears, by all indications, would be a much larger, wide-ranging operation.
And what does that mean for opinion within the MAGA movement, which we know divides between a kind of J.D. Vance view of not getting overentangled and someone like H.R. McMaster, who we heard on the programme the other day, saying there was a price to doing nothing in Iran. It was better that the president acted.
It's interesting. Last year, before the operation that I mentioned, striking the nuclear facilities, there was pretty significant opposition or at least opposition voiced by the MAGA movement, by key members of Donald Trump's coalition.
opposition to any kind of military operation targeting Iran, to the point where there were stories and reports about divisions within the White House and within the movement writ large. This time around, there doesn't seem to be the same level of opposition. And it may be Because after those strikes last year, it was a one and done, a one off sort of operation.
And the concerns that they had at the time of the United States getting bogged down into another protracted military campaign in the Middle East were allayed. Now, whether this is going to be the same sort of thing, it remains to be seen. But at least the voices within the MAGA movement don't seem to have those kind of concerns.
Anthony Zerker. But the standoff with Iran is not Mr Trump's only worry. His tariffs were ruled illegal by the US Supreme Court last week. To try to get round this, the Trump administration has brought in a new flat rate tariff of 10% on global imports.
Mr Trump has threatened to raise the new import tax even further to 15%, but has not yet done so amid concerns that US allies would be hit the hardest. Theo Leggett reports.
Uncertainty, confusion, even chaos. These are the terms being widely used to describe the impact of the latest trade decisions from the White House. Today, the United States introduced a new 10% tariff or tax on imports from around the world.
That was lower than the 15% rate promised by President Trump on Saturday in response to a Supreme Court ruling that declared a significant part of his existing trade agenda illegal. Analysts said businesses would be relieved that the new rate wasn't higher, but warned that the situation could change at any time.
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