This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

How Putin is playing Trump’s chaotic Ukraine “diplomacy” – with Oz Katerji

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Show Notes

Trump’s erratic actions around Ukraine look less and less like sincere bids to end the war and more like attempts to cosy up to Putin, sell out Ukraine and save himself in the midterms. And Putin is using his increased impunity. Within hours of any meeting between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russians there’s another devastating Russian missile attack on Ukraine. Is the Trump Administration just chasing its tail on Ukraine? Does any of it matter when Putin flatly refuses to accept that Ukraine deserves to exist at all? And might Witkoff’s many failures actually give the Administration’s pro-Ukraine faction more oxygen after the midterms?

Oz Katerji has reported on the Ukraine War on the ground since 2022. He talks to Michael Kimmage – history professor at Catholic University of America and author of The Abandonment of the West – about the Trumpist factions driving the President’s policies and the future for Ukraine when Trump becomes a lame duck president.

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Written and presented by Oz Katerji. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production.

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