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In this episode of Battleground Ukraine, Saul David and Roger Moorhouse break down a week of high-stakes diplomacy and unexpected battlefield shifts as the war approaches its four-year anniversary.

The duo discusses the rapid collapse of the latest trilateral peace talks in Geneva, which ended in acrimony after just two hours as Russian negotiators refused to budge on territorial demands. Meanwhile, Kyiv sees a "gleam of sunshine" on the ground: Ukrainian forces have retaken 78 square miles of territory near Zaporizhzhia—the most significant gain in such a short window since 2023—thanks in part to a strategic communications blackout involving Starlink terminals.

Finally, we tackle the "disgraceful" Olympic disqualification of a Ukrainian athlete, Marco Rubio’s diplomatic tour of Eastern Europe, and the history of WWII German Special Forces.

If you have any thoughts or questions, you can send them to - podbattleground@gmail.com

Producer: James Hodgson

X (Twitter): @PodBattleground

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