Ukrainecast

The Lavrov interview

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the face of President Putin’s Russia, insists that his country didn’t invade Ukraine in a rare interview with the BBC. Victoria and Vitaly unpick the interview with Patricia Lewis, Director of the International Security Programme at Chatham House. 
She also tells us about the significance of Ukraine getting a step closer to European Union membership. Is this purely symbolic?
And we hear from Joy, the fiancée of a US former marine, reported missing in Ukraine.
Today’s episode was produced by Alix Pickles, Osman Iqbal and Clare Williamson. The technical producer was Emma Crowe and the editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 0330 1239480.

The BBC’s only English language programme entirely dedicated to the war in Ukraine and its fallout, Ukrainecast, is your go-to podcast which investigates the biggest issues around the conflict. Could Putin push the nuclear button? How could Donald Trump end the war in 24 hours? What is the price for peace? The podcast is hosted by Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire and BBC Monitoring’s Vitaly Shevchenko. Ukrainecast covers the most important topics around the conflict and speaks to the real people who’ve lived through several years of war. It also brings you agenda-setting interviews with special guests each week such as UK foreign secretary David Cameron, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and pre-eminent Russia expert Fiona Hill.GET IN TOUCH: 
You can join our Ukrainecast online community here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord 
Send us a message or voicenote via WhatsApp to +443301239480 
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