Senior Editor Issue Insight: Russia-Ukraine talks a positive step

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00:00Donna, I just wanted to ask you there, the US and Ukraine will hold another round of

00:04talks. We're hearing this today, following today's discussions between America and Russia.

00:11In your opinion, do you think this is a positive sign that they are making headway in these

00:17negotiations?

00:18Well, you certainly can look at this from the perspective of, you know, are the last

00:24two days better than President Zelensky's 20 minutes in the Oval Office a month ago?

00:31And the answer is yes. When the Ukrainians are talking to the US on Sunday, and then

00:38the US is talking to the Russians on Monday, and then the US is talking to the Ukrainians

00:42on Tuesday, even though this is at what's called a technical level. So these are basically

00:48the level below the foreign ministers, below the secretaries. However, the Ukrainian delegation

00:54is led by their defense minister. So that shows that, you know, they're trying to make

00:58something happen. And he does have the credibility and he does have the authority to make some

01:05decisions. So that's really good. The fact that they're meeting again tomorrow is hopefully

01:09going to be building on the meetings that were held today between the US and the Russians.

01:14So this is all about, in diplomatic parlance, confidence building measures. Basically what

01:19both governments do, the Russians and the Ukrainians, they make lists. And it's basically

01:24what's most important at the top, and then you go all the way down to least important.