which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. donald trump is taking the us in a radically new direction. at home, he's declared war on swathes of the federal government, with elon musk as his enforcer. if the courts get in his way, thenjudges could be abroad, america first means a dramatic reset of relations of vladimir putin. my guest is victoria spartz,

welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me, stephen. it's great to have you on the show. have you been surprised by the speed with which

and stop the war. but president trump ran on, you know, being able to deliver results. titanic situation, you know, on a better course quickly, we'll have an even worse situation in a lot of areas, on a lot of fronts. within the first few weeks of his presidency. he now describes volodymyr zelensky as a "dictator", this war, not russia. well, i don't think he switched sides. before even he got elected, he was very transparent

so, he also understands that the difficulty, happening with ukraine and zelensky. what it is really he's doing within his country, zelensky — but then, within his country, he centralised a lot of power. he was elected in 2019... i mean, listen, there is no argument what

you were born... well, maybe they should talk to... hang on, let me finish. you were born in ukraine, and this is what you said the month after the all—out russian invasion of ukraine in february 2022. that's what you said after the russians invaded ukraine. sadly enough, the ukrainian people elected a terrible this is the facts — when i went to ukraine was telling, "we are going to be cooking zelensky was telling,

"we are going to be cooking shish kebabs on may." "you have an invasion coming up." "get your people ready." so, we were preparing. and you're talking about shish kebabs? er, yeah, you know what? because i know you know ukraine well, you were born there, you have family there, you know what the ukrainians have been through over the last three years. you know what a defence the ukrainian military has put up to resist russian aggression. and you know how successful the ukrainian military has been ..go to kyiv and install a puppet government. as a dictator and says they started the war —

both of which are plainly untrue? courageous military that stood up in spite of their government i separated — ukrainian people were able to survive and held aggression in spite of their government. getting worse and worse, and i feel bad for them. so, i do have understanding of what's happening, and i do have full support. i said i fully support

and i understand the sacrifices they've done. and sadly enough... come direct from the kremlin, aren't you? and itjust seems to me... no, i'm telling the truth! hang on, itjust seems to me... i am telling the truth that you are afraid to say, because all of you — your government knows it. everyone is afraid even to give money. hang on, this is, this is... that is a reality. it's a sad reality. you want to have a hard talk?

let's have it. some sort of control. yeah, sure. sure. the united states has the biggest problem of all. in a way that, according to the european union, is more effective than anything they've ever done before. donald trump has given a whole series of diplomatic gifts to vladimir putin before any substantive negotiation has even begun. he's ruled out american

boots ever being put as part of a peacekeeping force. much of what he wanted, including recognition that russia will stay in control of parts of occupied ukraine. it's a sad reality. it's reached the point that i was shocked, to fight a 20—year war, which is usually not very good. you know, we need to win wars as fast as we can. democracy has speed and agility, on a long—term dictatorship, you know, have advantages. so, no—one got ready.

things, and then, going and taking, you know, and taking picture ops. and this is not about picture ops, putin understands only weapons. let me ask you — i'm trying to try a different tack with you, a more personal question — you told me, in northern ukraine, where your family is from. "bombing from russia." the position you take today? in ukraine, most people — that's why he has low approval rating — that he failed ukraine with corruption, with his comedy presentation, not getting the country, and on top of it harassing his own military. and there is no doubt that putin is a true evil, there is no doubt, and i will never say anything else about him. it's terrible what he did. sabotaging the country and playing politics this is betrayal, too.

and what can be done. i truly believe, in the long run, ukraine is going to prevail, but in the short run, the situation is tough, and we need to figure out how and figure out... do you think... do you think that a meaningful and lasting peace can be done without ukraine and the europeans even being at the negotiating table? in a bilateral process with putin and his team from moscow. at all, no matter who sits at the table. and then it will depend what ukrainians are going to do. they're going to have elections. it will depend what leader they elect, what's happened in russia. ukrainian people did significant sacrifice.

ukraine is not ready, or europe, oranyone, to fight that war. as a trump loyalist, and if i can put it this way, is in grave danger and is probably doomed? friedrich merz, has just said, "my absolute priority "is to strengthen europe and european defence, "to achieve independence from the united states, "because we see that the americans — "at least, this administration — "are indifferent to the fate of europe." what you have, like loyalists. and maga supporters. we're very diverse. i have very tough races and i'm

very independent thinking. and i'm willing to have productive conversations with my own party, but notjust go insult people on twitter, like zelenskyjust did with the president of the country... to answer the question, it would be much appreciated. do you understand that in europe, there is a feeling that with donald trump well, if nato wants to have a future, they need to grow their defences, they need to become stronger, you know. because until russia's mingling there, it was impossible.

so, let's have an honest conversation, not wait for us to send our money, ourweapons. supplies and equipment? hang on. i mean, again, facts... but facts do matter, and the fact is... i don't. financial and military assistance, if you add it all up, but let us move on. yeah, the way how they calculate that is different. only weapons matter, 0k?

because it seems to me donald trump is doing he is focused on a transactional set of relationships. he clearly sees a future for an economic partnership with russia. marco rubio�*s talked about the opportunities that lie ahead for the united states and russia. on the rare earth mineral resources of ukraine, american right to 50% of those rare earth minerals. are you telling the outside world they would have been smart, they wouldn't have making deals with united states. that's why we're going to be defending the, 0k? to be defending them, 0k? let's just be realistic.

a political partnership. not... but when you have ukrainians taking our money and buying that is the reality. so i think economic partnership actually would be a national security issue, that ukrainians should be really serious territory to russia, something like 18% to 20% of your land is going to be kept by vladimir putin, have a us if that is the outcome, the historian niall ferguson —

to donald trump — says this. of "unalloyed appeasement", and he says the events of what we've seen "those of us who conveyed to the new administration "the west by an axis of china, "russia, iran and north korea". russia, iran and north korea". including china, could be very dangerous? crimea and advanced in the eastern ukraine. when biden will say, oh, a little incursion is ok,

that's an appeasement. putin didn't move under trump. because who is going to be fighting? let's just be realistic. we have to deal tougher on russia. they might start advancing further. that's a reality, because europe's been appeasing russia, by depending on their gas and oils, by having business a lot of people are dying, but ballistic missiles are not landing in capitals in europe. they don't see what �*s happening on the front line. so we have a brave people. they stopped, thanks to the military, they stopped them taking over. but reality is reality. so it is going to be only temporary,

so let's just be honest and talk about that. but at least you can stop russia from moving further. yeah. let's move from foreign you, as a politician, have always been a very loud he appears to have fired people at the us centers who've had to be rehired because of the dangers that has posed ? and if you remember, hayek said, of centralised government. we centralised enormous amount

of power that we cannot we're doing too many things and nothing is good, is the state function, what are local government functions, what is the federal function? and we need to do better. national defence. we protect our border, have good interstate commerce, but unfortunately, we are not. we are like a titanic, on the collision course. we need to have some big, serious moves. at least in some efficiency, but it's ultimately for the congress to put it into law, and that's what i'm working on. the congress isn't really able to effectively push back federaljudges and courts

are pushing back. or access to treasury payments, would likely be illegal. now, donald trump and elon musk seem to be saying that if the courts continue to rule against them, they are going to take on thejudges. the executive branch starts to intimidate the courts and the judges? i think we're a republic, actually, not a democracy. judicial system is important. it's congress's fault not to do its job.

think about it. it's all about the money. of the house and the senate. i need to make sure that my party is going yeah, well, i've got bad news for you on that front. on the delivery front, jessica riedel, who is a budget expert and based at the conservative — has looked at what doge is doing and compared are about $4 billion, and elon musk promised that he'd be able to save two trillion.

what's in these branches. but ultimately, all this needs to happen in congress. but we have so much fraud and abuse, so we have to start working with them, right, you say that is your role. isn't your number—one role to defend democracy? you are in the legislative branch. what he sees in these early weeks of donald trump's second term is a slow... well, it's not slow, "but incumbent abuse of power systematically tilts "the playing field against the opposition" in this new america.

well, listen, actually, we need to see who these a lot of them from the same government programmes that we so i would take everything with a grain of salt. that they try to find, the bad things that are happening in government, will put it in the law, because i agree we are article one branch. notjust for one administration. and congress needs to start exercising its power and responsibility. congresswoman victoria spartz,

hello. the start of march. working its way eastwards as we go through the day, with some pretty heavy bursts of rain, some snow mixing in over the tops of the pennines, but that band of rain should pivot its way northern ireland and scotland perhaps seeing a fair bit of cloud lingering into the afternoon with some outbreaks of patchy rain. for dry weather and sunshine — a few showers into the northwest of the uk — but where we see clearing

skies, temperatures will drop of eastern england, some showers into northern ireland, northern and western parts of scotland. thursday should bring quite a lot of sunshine and temperatures of around 8—10 celsius. we will see quite a widespread frost and then, a lovely—looking day, spells of sunshine, a bit breezy up towards the northwest, and temperatures of around 9—10 celsius.

well, our area of high pressure will still be with us into the weekend. now, this weather system tries to push in from the northwest — so, a lot of dry weather on the way. this is the forecast for the four capital cities

live from washington. this is bbc news. ukraine says an agreement has been reached with the us on the joint exploitation of kyiv�*s mineral riches — a key demand of president donald trump.

president trump in washington. hello, i'm helena humphrey. of ukraine's mineral resources. the country is rich in oil and gas, as well as raw materials, as this map shows. in washington on friday. gary o'donoghue has the lastest. this deal was close — and that turned out to be true, we don't know much about the detail, donald trump has said already this could be

worth billions of dollars to the us, an important part of his request.