00:00A very difficult year indeed. If you remember when Donald Trump assumed office for the second time,
00:06people around the world and in Ukraine, some of them were saying that this would be a disaster
00:10for Ukraine, that he would be on Russia's side, if not actually a puppet of Vladimir Putin.
00:16Others in Ukraine in particular were actually more optimistic, saying that he would soon get
00:20fed up with Vladimir Putin when he realized that the Russian leader wasn't ready to make peace
00:24quickly and perhaps be even harsher against him than Joe Biden would have been. I think the latter
00:29group of optimists have been proved wrong. Clearly, Donald Trump has not turned on Vladimir
00:34Putin or put the kind of pressure on Russia that Ukraine has been saying throughout this year
00:39needs to be put in order for Russia to accept a peace deal. But have the first group really been
00:45proved entirely right? I would argue not entirely either. At the end of February, that disastrous
00:50meeting in the White House, it looked like that was the way things were going. Just before Christmas
00:55or at the end of the autumn, it looked that way as well, when the Americans seemed to be pushing
01:00Ukraine to accept a 28-point peace plan that Ukrainians said amounted to capitulation. But both
01:06times, the American leader was walked back from that and assumed a somewhat more moderate position.
01:12I think the Ukrainians think that their diplomatic efforts are to be thanked for that. Volodymyr
01:16Zelensky had a couple of very successful meetings after that terrible one with Donald Trump. And so far,
01:22although the Americans have massively reduced their support for Ukraine, they haven't cut it off
01:26entirely. They haven't stopped sharing intelligence with Kiev. And the Ukrainians, meanwhile, although
01:31they've lost territory throughout the year that Donald Trump's been in the presidency for a second
01:37time, only actually a little bit less than one percent of Ukraine's total area, which considering the
01:42massive reduction in U.S. aid is not a bad showing. They've really proven that they can make their own
01:49weapons and that they've also pushed the Europeans to provide more help.
01:54Bravo.
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