How Trump left Ukraine and Europe reeling

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, Shaun Walker, talks through a seismic week, as the president sidelined Kyiv and other European capitals from negotiations on the ending the war and then called into question the future of US support for Europe’s security altogether. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:07.0	Today, the week that left Ukraine reeling and a whole era in Europe in doubt.
0:18.6	AI will change how we all work. At PWC it already has.
0:23.6	We've been pioneering AI for around 10 years.
0:26.6	Over 15,000 of our UK staff are equipped with AI tools and skills
0:31.6	and we've created alliances with leading AI firms.
0:35.6	Visit pwc.co.uk to discover how we can help you get ahead of change.
0:42.6	This is human-led tech-powered.
0:49.3	Everybody knew Donald Trump would be different this time.
0:59.2	His return would mean big changes for Ukraine, fighting for its existence against Russia,
1:06.2	and potentially big changes for Europe, which is almost completely dependent on American money and weapons
1:12.5	and guarantees for its security. That was the American-led world that we've all lived in for decades.
1:20.0	Still the world it felt like we lived in this time last week.
1:23.3	Breaking news this evening and in the past half an hour, Donald Trump has confirmed he's had a phone call with President Putin in which they discussed the war in Ukraine.
1:34.6	Maybe Russia will give up a lot. Maybe they won't. And it's all dependent on what is going to happen. The negotiation really hasn't started.
1:42.4	And then, over the course of a few days,
1:45.7	a call with Vladimir Putin, a press conference in Washington, and a shocking speech in Munich.
1:52.3	The Trump administration appears to have left that world in tatters.
1:57.5	The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor.
2:06.1	And what I worry about is the threat from within.
2:16.9	It's no exaggeration to say the future of Ukraine might be decided in the days and weeks ahead.
2:24.2	And with an emergency meeting in Paris yesterday, maybe the future of Europe too.
	...

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