Episode description

The BBC’s chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, gives us her take on whether President Biden’s offer to talk may offer a moment for diplomacy, despite an apparent rebuff from Vladimir Putin. A former US marine who heads up the Mozart Group, an unarmed private military company, gives us a graphic depiction of saving civilians behind Russian lines in the Donbass and occupied areas. Jonny Dymond joins us to share his fresh insights into the Russian President as more episodes of Putin drop on BBC Sounds and Radio 4. And we return to the subject of celebrating a Ukrainian Christmas after a listener emailed the podcast to tell us we’d got it all wrong. Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaliy Shevchenko. The producers were Arsenii Sokolov, Clare Williamson and Luke Radcliff. The technical coordinator was Emma Crowe. The series producer is Fiona Leach. The assistant editor is Alison Gee and the editor is Jonathan Aspinwall. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480