Introduction

Russia has promised to reduce attacks around Ukraine’s capital at face-to-face talks in Turkey. Victoria, Vitaly and Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall ask if that’s a hopeful sign or just empty words.

After reports about the poisoning of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian peace negotiators, we speak to Max Colchester, one of the journalists who uncovered the news, and former Soviet intelligence officer, Dr Boris Volodarsky, a spy expert who himself was poisoned in 2005.

And we get an update on the situation in Russian-occupied Mariupol, where the mayor has pleaded for all remaining residents to be evacuated, with Ukrainian MP Dmytro Gurin, who is from the besieged port city.

This episode of Ukrainecast was made by Daniel Wittenberg with Phil Marzouk, Emma Forde and Miranda Slade. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.