The dog days of summer: Ukraine battles and diplomacy

Mark Leonard welcomes Jana Kobzova to break down the summer’s key developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

This week, ECFR’s director Mark Leonard returns to our regular programming after an eventful summer over Ukraine that saw Donald Trump meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss the war—a meeting that stunned global observers. Also over the summer, European leaders held a summit in the White House to craft a response to the crisis as Russia kept a relentless pace of bombardment of Ukrainian cities. The conflict’s shadow lengthened beyond Ukraine’s borders when, in September, Russian drones flew into Polish and Romanian territory, breaching NATO airspace.  

To unpack these events, Mark is joined by Jana Kobzova, co-director of ECFR’s European Security Programme and former foreign policy advisor to Slovak president Zuzana Čaputová. They discuss what the US has actually promised to Russia and what concrete security guarantees European countries are willing to offer. What is the domestic situation in Ukraine? And is Zelensky losing or gaining influence on the domestic political scene? 

This episode was recorded on September 16th, 2025 

Bookshelf: 

John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman 

Preventing the next war: A European plan for Ukraine 

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