Episode

Four years of war in Ukraine - when will it end?

Podcast
The Briefing Room
Published
Feb 26, 2026
Duration seconds
1709
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002rrwr
Audio
http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0n3dwnb.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/the-briefing-room-1106985/episodes/four-years-of-war-in-ukraine-when-will-it-end
Markdown
/podcast/the-briefing-room-1106985/four-years-of-war-in-ukraine-when-will-it-end.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-briefing-room-1106985/episodes/four-years-of-war-in-ukraine-when-will-it-end/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-briefing-room-1106985/four-years-of-war-in-ukraine-when-will-it-end.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

It’s four years this week since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. And by this summer the conflict will have gone on for longer than the First World War. Casualties run into the hundreds of thousands. Peace talks brokered by the US have been off and on for the past few months, with President Putin demanding that Ukraine gives Russia full control of the eastern Donbas region, including the part it does not occupy. President Zelensky refuses. Meanwhile, Ukraine has experiened one of its harshest winters as its cities and energy infrastructure have been pounded by Russian drones and missiles. Still both sides fight on in a war which has become dominated by advanced drone technology. David Aaronovitch asks his guests whether anyone is winning and when and how this war might end. Guests: Mark Galeotti, head of Mayak Intelligence and author of "Forged in War: a military history of Russia from its beginnings to today." Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute and author of "The Arms of the Future: Technology and Close Combat in the Twenty First Century." Rebecca Lissner, Senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and lecturer at the Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University. Christopher Miller, Chief Ukraine Correspondent, The Financial Times and author of "The war came to us: life and death in Ukraine." Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley and Kirsteen Knight Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound engineer: Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon