00:00So, Liam, thank you for making the time. It's good to have a chance to chat with you, sir.
00:03First of all, we're seeing a lot of media reports now that there seems to be some progress when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine situation,
00:09following the meeting in Alaska and the following talks. What's your opinion on that?
00:14There's a lot of rhetoric. There's a lot of staging. Are we seeing real progress? We don't know yet.
00:20But my view is that you need to go back to understand why Ukraine wants very, very specific, overt and bankable security guarantees.
00:33Remember back in 1994, Ukraine gave away the nuclear weapons that they had inherited from the breakup of the Soviet Union.
00:41And they did so on the basis that they had a security guarantee from the United States, from Britain, from France, but mostly from Russia,
00:49that their sovereignty and their borders would be respected.
00:52That guarantee was worth zero because Putin decided he wanted Crimea and he just took it.
01:00Now, if you were the Ukrainians and you are wanting to end the war, you will want to do so knowing that you have a much better guarantee of your security
01:09than came with that agreement, the Budapest Memorandum.
01:13So I entirely understand why the Ukrainians are where they are.
01:17And until we get those very bankable guarantees, I don't think we can move much forward.
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