Trump’s plan for “Peace” in Ukraine only pleases Putin + The Politics of Modern Love

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What is Trump's plan for peace in Ukraine?

Nish Kumar 0:02
Hi, this is Pod Save the UK. I'm Nish Kumar.
Coco Kahn 0:04
And I'm Coco Kahn. Today, Trump's foreign policy shift has left Europe reeling. But is Starmer's vision of sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine the answer?
Nish Kumar 0:13
I don't know about you, Coco, but I would say troops on the ground in Ukraine doesn't sound particularly peaceful to me.
Coco Kahn 0:18
No, I know. I'm hearing a lot of the word frontline on the radio today, which doesn't make me feel great. And also, immediately after you hear these words, frontline, you hear this tidbit from a former military chief. It basically says we don't have enough money. We don't have enough resources in the army to actually run a front line.
Nish Kumar 0:36
All of it's adding up to me holding a gun, which no one wants.
Coco Kahn 0:39
That does not make me feel secure on a national level, Nish.
Nish Kumar 0:42
Also, I don't look great in green.
Coco Kahn 0:45
Oh, but elsewhere, a petition to ban children under the age of 16 from social media is doing the rounds. Tortoise tech reporter Patricia Clark is here to tell us whether this will really save the children.
Nish Kumar 0:56
And we'll be joined by author and journalist Sean Fay to understand why so many of us feel unlucky in love and to ask who's profiting.
Coco Kahn 1:05
Now, this week has seen a monumental meeting between Russia and the United States to discuss the future of Ukraine. It was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, blindsiding leaders in Ukraine and Europe who were cut out of the negotiations.

Why is Keir Starmer considering sending UK troops to Ukraine?

Nish Kumar 1:18
And earlier in the week, Donald Trump suggested European security can no longer be the primary focus of the American military. and in doing so, plunged the future of the transatlantic relationship into question and undermined an 80-year-long military alliance. European leaders hastily convened a meeting to discuss their response. Here's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking after the meeting.
Keir Starmer 1:37
I'm prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others if there is a lasting peace agreement. But there must be a US backstop because a US security guarantee... is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.
Coco Kahn 2:00
So Starmer's suggestion of a US backstop to deter Russia wasn't quite explained there. But we might find out next week when Starmer meets with Trump in Washington.
Nish Kumar 2:10
However, some European leaders weren't quite ready to make the same commitments for boots on the ground, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying it's inappropriate to discuss sending troops in at this stage and that he was a little irritated by the suggestion. Following the meeting between Russia and Ukraine, Trump's given a press conference where he seems to have blamed Ukraine for the war, saying you never should have started it. And if anybody needs a reminder, just to be clear, Ukraine did not choose to invade itself. He also said that they'd had three years to end the war. And this, just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without the loss of much land, very little land, without the loss of any lives and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their sides. And he's also demanded an election in Ukraine before any peace deal can be reached. which would naturally be a sort of prime target for Russian interference.
Nish Kumar 2:56
One of the potential objectives that various experts in the region have always stated was at the heart of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is to essentially replace Zelensky and install a kind of pro-Putin puppet, in effect, bringing Ukraine under Russian control, a little bit like what Lukashenko has done in Belarus. Obviously, we will be discussing this through the frame of British politics. And The challenge here is that next week, Keir Starmer is going to have a meeting with Donald Trump and Starmer is trying to position the United Kingdom as essentially a conduit between Trump's America and the European Union. And what I would say is that It's about time that people wake up and smell the dog shit because there's this idea that the US and Europe are mutually aligned in their values, but that does not hold water under the Trump presidency. There is a reason that they had peace talks and did not invite Ukraine. I have no idea how... we steer a course through this.

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