Blinken, Lammy arrive in Kyiv for talks with Ukraine's leaders

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00:00U.S. Secretary of State and his British counterpart are in Kiev this Wednesday.

00:04Anthony Blinken and David Lamey in the Ukrainian capital, as Vladimir Zelensky continues to

00:08pressure NATO allies for permission to use donated weaponry to strike targets inside Russia.

00:14Their visit to Ukraine comes a day after sanctions were slapped on Iran over reports

00:19Tehran had sent missiles to Moscow to be used in the war.

00:24We have adjusted and we've adapted, trying to make sure that Ukraine had what it needed,

00:29when it needed it, to be effective in repelling the Russian aggression.

00:33And you've seen from the different, highly sophisticated weapon systems we've provided,

00:39intelligence sharing and many other forms of support,

00:42we've worked with many other countries to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs.

00:47We can now bring in our international affairs editor, Philip Tove. Philip, great to see you.

00:52What is the point of Anthony Blinken's visit as well as David Lamey's visit to Kiev today?

00:57There are two important reasons that these two men have gone there. The first one is basically

01:03just to understand and work out what are Kiev's goals. And the second is what are Kiev's needs,

01:11Kiev being the capital of Ukraine, of course. And the underlying factor here is that the Ukrainians

01:17have been crying out, not just for months, but almost since the start of this war, for

01:22long-range missiles to be given to them so they can fire them into Russian territory.

01:26They say the only way that they can fight back against the Russian advances in the east of

01:31Ukraine is to hit those bases where the Russian missiles are being fired from within Russia

01:36itself. We've seen these attacks by drones over the past few days, but that's not enough

01:41to stop the Russian advance. What they want is for the Western missiles, Western weapons,

01:46to be able to be used in Russia. They say they're basically fighting with their

01:50one-arm tie behind their back. The problem here is that the West, and particularly the United

01:55States, don't want Ukraine to be able to do that because they are worried about this

01:59spiralling into a much wider war with potentially Russia unleashing attacks against NATO members.

02:06And this could all basically turn out to be a much wider conflict. So that has explained why

02:13the West has been so reluctant to give in to what Vladimir Zelensky has been asking for. But

02:20Joe Biden yesterday was asked the question, he said actually in reply to that, we are working

02:27that out now. That is in asking him about whether the US will allow long-range missiles to be fired.

02:32Now you mentioned just as you were introducing this subject, the fact that there are sanctions

02:38imposed on Iran. I think that is playing into the hands of the Ukrainians and into the hands

02:46of the United States because they say, and Antony Blinken has said this, that those weapons that

02:51Iran is giving to Russia will be used within the next few weeks in Russia's war against Ukraine.

02:57Since then, of course, both Russia and Iran have said that's baseless, but I don't think anybody

03:02in the West believes that. Now it was unsurprising that the war in Ukraine featured in last night's

03:07presidential debate. Take a listen. Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies

03:14are so thankful that you are no longer president. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kiev with his

03:21eyes on the rest of Europe, starting with Poland. And why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans

03:27right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think

03:34is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.

03:40I want to get the war settled. I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well. I have a

03:44good relationship and they respect your president, okay? They respect me. They don't respect Biden.

03:50We're playing with World War III and we have a president that we don't even know if he's...

03:55Where is our president? We don't even know if he's a president.

03:58So, Philip, clearly two very different displays there on how to end this war in Ukraine.

04:05Well, we've seen Kamala Harris go on the attack in this debate, not only in Ukraine, but on a

04:10multitude of different issues. And I think Ukraine was one of the issues that she was really keen to

04:15attack Donald Trump on. Remember that foreign policy doesn't play very much of a big role in

04:21the election campaign in the United States. It's not seen as one of the key elements that could

04:25swing the election. That's more on the economy, on spending power. But it's important. I think

04:31it was important for Kamala Harris to mark points on what was going on in Ukraine. And

04:35a couple of takeaways from that. First of all, that heated exchange about

04:39the ability of Donald Trump to end the war. He's had more bad news just in the last

04:45few minutes because Russia, the Ukraine, has been issuing a statement saying, well,

04:48no phone call by Donald Trump would end the war. That doesn't mean anything at all.

04:54The second point is that Donald Trump was asked during that debate twice in a row by the moderator,

05:00would you prefer, would it be in the interest of the United States that Ukraine won the war?

05:05He wouldn't answer that question. He just said he wanted to bring the war to an end. So I think that

05:11also unleashed suspicion that Donald Trump, if re-elected to the White House, would play into

05:16the hands of Vladimir Putin. And if you remember, there are other exchanges that Donald Trump has

05:22had in the past which have led one to believe that he could play into the arms of Vladimir

05:28Putin. The first one saying that Russia had a green card to go and attack any country,

05:32any NATO country that didn't pay its dues. He said that they could basically do, to quote Donald

05:37Trump, whatever the hell they want. And secondly, back in 2018, remember then that Donald Trump

05:42defended Russia over claims of interference in the 2016 presidential election in contradiction

05:48of the US intelligence agencies which said the contrary. So all of that playing into the hands

05:53of what many say would be Donald Trump's flattery towards Vladimir Putin.

05:57Thank you very much for that, Philip.

05:59Philip, tell them.

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