Missiles or mediation? Trump envoys shuttle between Russia and Ukraine

Home Shows The Debate To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 6, 2026. © Ukrainian Presidential Press Service, REUTERS 44:05 Issued on: 08/09/2026 - 20:19 From the show Exactly two months ago, Ukraine’s momentum was all the talk at a Nato summit in Turkey. What with its long-range drones and Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that the US would allow Kyiv to produce Patriot anti-ballistic missiles on home soil. That was then. This is now: Trump's deal's yet to materialize, Russia’s ramped up cruise missile launches and Ukraine’s run out of air defenses to stop them. Moscow's also failing to stop incoming missiles. What happens in war when for both sides, offense proves better than defense? Could this lose-lose situation make mediation efforts like the one undertaken in the past days by Donald Trump’s emissaries more relevant? We’ll ask what it will take for Ukraine and Russia to get serious about a lasting settlement, Russia which still calls it a special military operation. Moscow must looking beyond the battlefield… to the momentum enjoyed by Putin-friendly populists in France and Germany to the US midterms and to Nato’s resolve. On that score, we'll ask about Berlin’s calibrated response to a drone attack at Leipzig Airport. Is war in Ukraine about to wind down or escalate a whole further? Produced by François Picard, Andrew Hilliar, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.