
'It's very hard to point to a single concession that Trump has forced Putin to make'
'The shocking part of what's happened over the last couple of weeks is that apparently Trump and Washington are willing to sign off on essentially redrawing international borders at the demands of Vladimir Putin... But I don't think Trump is a Russian agent. I think that's completely childish and stupid'
On the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above, columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson discuss the war in Ukraine with historian and author Owen Matthews as negotiations for peace continue.
The author of Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin's war on Ukraine sees the war between Ukraine and Russia at a stalemate but also at a 'grim moment', 'The Russians have been attacking and advancing, and Ukrainians have been pushed back in certain places.' He added, 'There's a sense that the Ukrainians are exhausted. They haven't got enough men. They haven't got enough ammunition'
Without continuing support from the US Owen says the burden will fall to closer allies, 'There is no way for Ukraine to make any major military advances without a full commitment of the West.'
Asked to assess the chances of a ceasefire in the coming weeks, Owen concludes ' I think actually, yes, given what we know. It's an extraordinary sort of piece of geopolitical luck that suddenly, for internal American reasons, the US administration suddenly sort of landed in his [Putin's] lap. It's turned his way. The world has turned his way.

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