Q&A: Trump's sanctions, Putin's nuclear drills, and Zelensky's poll ratings

In the last week, Volodymyr Zelensky failed to secure long-range Tomahawk missiles from Donald Trump during a reportendly heated meeting. Then, a planned summit in Budapest between the US and Russian presidents was called off by Trump who said it would have been a ‘waste of time’.

But, the White House has now increased the pressure on the Kremlin announcing sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, a first for the Trump administration since his return to office. But will these sanctions be enough to push Putin to the negotiating table? Or will the Kremlin see them as an escalation?

And as European leaders join Zelensky in insisting that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine should start with freezing the current front line, how should we interpret the Ukrainian leader's language?

To answer your questions, Lucy and Vitaly are joined by the BBC’s Europe Digital Editor Paul Kirby and senior digital journalist Laura Gozzi. The team also discuss the EU’s plan for using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine and what, if anything, Ukraine is doing to combat propaganda within Russia.

Today’s episode is presented by Lucy Hockings and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Rufus Gray, Clare Williamson and Julia Webster. The technical producer was James Piper. The series producer is Chris Flynn. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email [email protected] with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480

You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord