00:00your initial reactions to this summit?
00:05Yes, well, indeed, the optics of it was very interesting. But I think one of the main outcomes
00:11is that there is no outcome out of the summit. There is no breakthrough when it comes to cease
00:17fire, which I think was much expected, to be honest. But at the same time, I think it was
00:22quite embarrassing that even Trump could not really justify and could not really say much
00:28about what was discussed and if there was any success at all. He said it was a successful
00:33summit, but we don't really see this in terms of the actual reflection of what sort of agreement
00:41has been reached between these two leaders. I think the most interesting part would be once we hear
00:47the reactions from the European leaders and President Zelensky, we will know that whether
00:52there was at least some sort of framework discussed on how to achieve the ceasefire. But
00:57the minimum targets that Trump has set was that there would be some sort of agreement when it
01:05comes to ceasefire. But I don't really feel like this has been the case, judging from the press
01:11conference that we heard. And also, it was quite telling that the leaders were unable or unwilling
01:18to answer any questions from the journalists, because I don't really think that there was much
01:22to discuss there. As you said, we're still waiting to hear from Vladimir Zelensky. Trump said in that
01:27interview with Fox News after the summit that the ball is basically now in Zelensky's court. He's the
01:32one who's going to have to make a deal happen. Does this summit sort of change the balance of power,
01:37putting the pressure now on Zelensky rather than on Putin?
01:43Well, I have to say that this summit could have been a bigger disaster, let's put it that way. The fact
01:49itself that there was nothing agreed so far and there is no sort of discussion about some sort of
01:57exact concessions that Ukraine has to make is already some sort of achievement, even though the
02:03bar was very low and expectations were very low. I think it could have been worse. I think the worst
02:10case scenario for Ukraine would have been if there was some sort of agreement about territorial concessions,
02:17and then Trump would take this proposal to President Zelensky and it would be leave it or take it
02:23sort of proposal. So Zelensky wouldn't have really much options there. It would be either territorial
02:29concessions or losing the support from the United States. So far, we don't see this happening. But I think
02:38ultimately, of course, it is up to President Zelensky to make a decision for his own nation. But I don't
02:46think that Trump should be happy out of this summit because I think Putin is more of a winner out of this
02:58because he managed to get out of the international isolation. The optics were in favor of Putin
03:04from this summit. And at the same time, there is a feeling that Putin really did not propose any kind of
03:13serious concessions. Of course, interesting part is that he mentioned security guarantees, which makes
03:21me think that Trump has pressed about this particular issue. But we have the examples of Budapest
03:29memorandum, for example. And I don't really think that Putin would be serious at all in terms of
03:38discussing even providing any security guarantees for Ukraine, because his main aim is to violate
03:46Ukraine's sovereignty and to keep Ukraine weak and unable to sustain itself and defend itself.
03:53Let's come back to James Andrei in the studio. James, where does this summit leave Ukraine in terms
03:58of its negotiating power? Well, I feel that it's putting Ukraine in a tight spot. It really depends
04:04what Donald Trump will have told these European leaders, because he's spoken to them on the phone. We know that
04:11now on his way back to Washington, he's spoken to Zelensky at length. He's spoken for an hour with Ursula von der Leyen
04:19and other European leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, the French president, also Kerr Starmer, and the German
04:26Chancellor Friedrich Merz. So, you know, for now, we still have no reaction from any of these leaders,
04:33which, you know, it is quite surprising to think that we have this very important summit. And for now,
04:38nothing is coming out. There are really two options. Either nothing much has come out of it, or else
04:42something pretty big has, and everybody's thinking about what they're going to say.
04:46The problem is, it could very well be that Vladimir Putin has managed to convince Donald Trump that he
04:53was arriving with an acceptable proposal, and that indeed, you know, he's like to end the war,
04:58who wouldn't? But on his own terms, and that, you know, the risk is, as was just said, that he might
05:05try and impose this on the Europeans and the Ukrainians, in which case, we would be in this kind of worst
05:10case scenario where, for Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin walks off both rehabilitated, rehabilitated on the
05:19international stage, having been received by the president with all the pump we've just seen, goes back to
05:25the Europeans, tries to pressure a Russian broker solution upon Zelensky, Zelensky, and then the Europeans
05:32refuse, that drives a wedge between the United States and its NATO allies, and that would just be the perfect
05:38scenario for Vladimir Putin, because that, of course, would weaken the alliance, and that would
05:43be, you know, obviously a very big problem for the Europeans and for Volodymyr Zelensky, and then
05:49potentially, Donald Trump could decide to just walk out on the whole negotiation. We'll have to see how
05:54that goes. The other thing is, there was one information that had been given by Donald Trump in that
05:58interview with Sean Hannity, which was that he was hoping for a trilateral meeting between
06:05Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian president, Vladimir Putin, and himself in the weeks to come. Well,
06:12basically, that has been flatly denied by the Kremlin, with one of the main players in that room
06:17saying that there was no discussion of a potential trilateral meeting. That means really, that's the
06:22last thing that might have happened. It's kind of been taken off the table. So no ceasefire, no concrete
06:27steps towards one, and it appears no meeting. So that's not a great outcome when it comes to Trump.
06:33We've got an alert that European leaders are holding a new call about Ukraine in the wake of
06:37this summit. So perhaps, as you said, James, they're sort of weighing, having a unified response. We'll
06:41perhaps be hearing from them shortly. Nadia Saskuria, of course, we don't know what Trump and Putin
06:46agreed to, but just how much do you think that Ukraine might be willing to accept and to compromise
06:52with Russia in order to achieve a ceasefire?
06:57Well, the problem is that when it comes to, Trump mentions that there could be some sort of
07:03agreement. Well, he would be looking for some sort of options involving land swap. So this is extremely
07:11problematic for Ukraine, obviously, for obvious reasons, because Russia has put forward its maximalist
07:19demands when it comes to territorial concessions from Ukraine's side. So President Zelensky has been
07:26quite clear on this particular issue. But when it comes to ceasefire, Ukraine was, even initially,
07:33Ukraine agreed in principle. But Russia remains the main problem, because I don't really believe that
07:41Russians want a ceasefire right now, because Putin still believes that he has an upper hand when it
07:46comes to battlefield. And to a certain extent, if we look at the ongoing developments, even though
07:52Russian advance is slow, they are still making some progress. So I think Putin does not really need to
07:59make this decision right now. And what he wanted, in my opinion, was to maybe offer some sort of flattery
08:08to Donald Trump, which he did yesterday, and also gain some time in exchange, in order to potentially
08:16have more leverage in these discussions, follow up discussions in the near future. And in that sense,
08:23I think it's it looks like there will be some sort of series of discussions, which was hinted at during
08:31this press conference.
08:32And just briefly, James, perhaps to wrap us up, what do you what do you foresee happening in the
08:38coming days? Where are the next steps going to be?
08:40Well, we'll see what what comes out of, you know, we are going to start knowing what what is indeed
08:47being put on the table by the Russians. And it very much depends on that. One other thing that was
08:50said by Donald Trump, because all we have to work with here is this interview with Sean Hannity,
08:55is at some stage, you know, this Fox News presenter asks Donald Trump, he says, you know,
09:00you've been sanctioning India, the next step would be China. So that's secondary sanctions
09:06for buying oil from Russia that this is a, this is the real significant. These are real
09:14significant sanctions that could be slapped onto Russia, those are the ones that really hurt. Now,
09:19India is an important move, of course, Russia is the next chunk, and it's a big one. But Donald Trump
09:23asked if he would consider that said, look, we've had a great meeting, I don't feel we need
09:30to move towards sanctions right now. We'll see in two or three weeks. So, you know, the big question
09:35mark is, will there be another meeting? The Kremlin seems to say no. Will the Americans step up when
09:42it comes to sanctions? Does Donald Trump want to really sanction Russian Russians if they don't
09:46play ball? The answer to that seems to be no as well. Big question mark now is what did he offer,
09:52or what did he put on the table for the Europeans and for, you know, mainly Ukraine, and how they will
09:58react? All right, we'll continue to follow those reactions, of course, throughout the day. James,
10:02thank you so much. That's James Andre, our reporter here on set with me, and Nadia Suscuria. I also
10:07want to thank you so much for your insight. She is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services
10:12Institute.
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