Hello and welcome to this special emergency episode of Battleground Ukraine with me Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

Since our last episode, the Trump administration has begun to put some meat on the bone of when

and how a peace deal might be thrashed out, and it's not a site that most Ukrainians, or indeed

Europeans, will find all that palatable.

Far from it.

So we have to ask the big question, does this all herald a new world order in which the

US withdraws to its own hemisphere and leaves Europe and rumped NATO? have to ask the big question, does this all herald a new world order in which the US

withdraws to its own hemisphere and leaves Europe and rump NATO to fend for itself?

At a moment, we're going to speak to our friend, the American journalist Joe Lindsley,

who's been reporting daily from Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion

and get his reaction to the latest news.

But first, let's consider what we know about the mechanics of a potential peace deal.

The discussions are going to start in Saudi Arabia this week between a senior Trump delegation

that will include Mike Waltz, the U. the US National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio,

the Secretary of State, and Steve Witkoff, the president's Middle East envoy, and a team from

Russia. Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, who met with J.D. Vance in Germany on Friday,

said Ukraine had not been invited to the summit.

And nor, Patrick, it seems, have any of America's European allies. The snub was delivered by

Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, who said Europe would not directly take

part in Ukraine-Russia peace talks, claiming he was from, and I quote,

the school of realism, and that is not going to happen.

Speaking on Saturday, on the sidelines of the conference in Munich, he said, it may be like

...