The past week has been a bit of a wild ride and we can all be forgiven for having a bad case of mental whiplash.
We’ve gone from the American president suggesting the United States could provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles to the same American president backtracking and pressuring Ukraine to cede territory to Russia.
We’ve gone from talk of a ceasefire and a Trump-Putin summit in Budapest to a cancelled summit and new American and European sanctions on Russia.
To make sense of it all on The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore spoke with the always insightful James Sherr, an honorary fellow at the International Center for Defense and Security and an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House.
Enjoy…
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SHOW NOTES
The audio clips opening the podcast and the second segment were from a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on October 21, 2025. The translations are as follows:
“The frontline can spark diplomacy. Instead, Russia continues to do everything to weasel out of diplomacy – and as soon as the issue of long-range capabilities for us – for Ukraine – became less immediate, Russia’s interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically.”
“The discussion on Tomahawks turned out to be a major investment in diplomacy – we forced Russia to reveal that Tomahawks are precisely the card they take seriously. We will continue engaging with Europeans and Americans on long-range capabilities. Air defense is, of course, the top priority.”
James Sherr’s recently published work can be accessed here, here, and here.
The Power Vertical Newsletter on Substack can be accessed here. Recently published work by Brian Whitmore can be accessed here, here, here, and here. Please follow Brian Whitmore and The Power Vertical on Bluesky @powervertical.bsky.social
Andriy Zagorodnyuk’s article, Ukraine’s New Theory of Victory Should be Strategic Neutralization, which was discussed on the podcast, can be accessed here.
Michael Weiss’ Substack post about the Trump-Zelensky meeting, which was cited on the podcast, can be accessed here.