Simon Shuster

The people know best.

We're going to have more of our prediction market segment later in the show, but coming up first, I'm going to talk to Simon Shuster of The Atlantic about President Putin's proximity to our president.

It's coming up next.

Joining me now, Simon Shuster, staff writer at The Atlantic, to talk about President Trump's continually cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin.

He's the author of the bestselling book, The Showman, the inside story of the invasion that shook the world and made a leader of Vladimir Zelensky.

Thanks for being here.

I'm so glad to have you on about this and that we're continuing to talk about it because the president and the Putin relationship and the stuff they say is so often designed to distract from the realities on the ground.

And you know them better than anybody.

From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redman in London.

Today on The Global Story, has the US-Ukraine relationship reached a point of no return? And if it's not at the table at a Big Three summit, would it be on the menu? Today on the show, I'm pleased to say we're joined by Simon Shuster, who's a staff writer at The Atlantic, who's been on the show with us before.

Simon's a veteran reporter

of Russia and Ukrainian affairs.

And Donald Trump has been trying in his public statements to shift that blame onto the Ukrainians.

Is it working? I mean, I haven't seen any polling to suggest that he's changing anyone's minds on that.

Simon Shuster, thank you so much.

It's been really interesting talking this all through with you.

And last week, sudden restrictions on Starshield, a version of Starlink that is crucial to Ukraine's military operations, caught the world by surprise.

What is going on here? Is this a last ditch midterm effort by a deeply unpopular president looking to maintain his party's control of Congress? What impact does Trump's meddling have on the war? And is there anything Ukraine can do? I'm joined today by my colleagues, Jonathan Lemire and Simon Shuster, who have reported extensively on the prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Trump's diminishing return on his promise to end the war.

Let's get to questions.

Jonathan, Simon, welcome to the show.

You really have to feel for her, don't you? But another key question, which we'll discuss in a minute, is whether the events of this week might mean the gloves are off for the Ukrainians.

Simon Shuster in The Atlantic publishes an interesting piece on Kyiv's campaign to disrupt Russian air traffic, as you mentioned earlier, Dom, especially around the capital, and references the caution previously adopted by Zelensky because of the risks associated with doing so.

But no more.

Two architects of that campaign interviewed in the piece say they are only just getting started with an ambitious plan using AI-guided drones to circumvent Russian defenses and hit airports in Moscow and other cities.

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy says that at least 600,000 people across Ukraine are without power today after overnight Russian missile and drone strikes on energy infrastructure that also left at least three people dead.

Simon Shuster is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the book The Showman: Inside the Russian Invasion of Ukraine That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Simon, good morning.

Good morning.

Thank you.

Great to join you.

Simon Shuster is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the book The Showman: Inside the Russian Invasion of Ukraine That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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