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Shadowing practice: What Putin’s rejection of Ukraine’s call for talks means for efforts to end Russia’s war

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  1. Tonight, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Russia of choosing war over peace.0:00
  2. After Russian president Vladimir Putin rejected his request for an in -person meeting.0:05
  3. Putin spoke at the annual Economic Forum in St.0:10
  4. Petersburg, a city on edge after several Ukrainian airstrikes earlier this week.0:13
  5. Nick Schifrin reports.0:18
  6. Today, at Russia's premier economic forum, to an audience of Russia's richest businessmen and diplomats from the Global South, President Vladimir Putin said a meeting with Ukraine was off the0:21
  7. table.0:31
  8. Vladimir Putin, President of Ukraine, Ukraine's President of Ukraine, said, I said there is no point in meeting.0:32
  9. The only purpose for the Ukrainian side would be to stop the advance of our armed forces.0:34
  10. That's all.0:39
  11. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote Putin an open letter.0:40
  12. Quote, we see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran.0:44
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  1. Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us and you.0:48
  2. But he also taunted Putin, writing, you are fully dependent on China, and you, too, will have to fight much harder for your own existence, not Russia's, but your own.0:53
  3. Today, Putin called the letter boorish.1:03
  4. That letter was truly insolent in tone.1:07
  5. What is the point of that?1:09
  6. Is it a way to create the conditions for in -person meetings and negotiations?1:10
  7. Or is it a way to create an atmosphere where holding any such meetings becomes effectively impossible?1:14
  8. I believe it is the latter.1:19
  9. But the atmosphere in St.1:21
  10. Petersburg before the forum was created by Ukrainian drones.1:22
  11. On Wednesday, Ukrainian drones flew more than 600 miles to reach Putin's hometown and target an oil depot.1:27
  12. The blast became the backdrop to some of Russia's most iconic buildings and to the commutes of St.1:34
  13. Petersburg residents.1:40
  14. If it wasn't obvious already, the war in Ukraine has come home to Russia.1:42
  15. Ukrainian drones also targeted a nearby navy base and collapsed part of a warship with guided missiles.1:47
  16. Today, Putin acknowledged Ukraine's attacks, but insisted Russia is still open for business.1:54
  17. When the investors make an investment decision, they evaluate the risks in total.2:00
  18. We must strengthen our security, strengthen anti -missile defense and air defense, and we will do so.2:05
  19. He wants to showcase Russia as a country that you want to invest in.2:10
  20. And yet, if you see all these other things going on, you have to wonder what it means to invest in a country which is being hit by Ukrainian drones.2:14
  21. Angela Stent is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the former National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia.2:22
  22. She calls Zelensky's letter an attempt once again to expose that Putin has no interest in a meeting.2:29
  23. Putin's line on this has always been, I'm not going to meet Zelensky until we've signed all the agreements and the subtext is until Donald Trump has persuaded Zelensky to2:35
  24. give up all this territory.2:45
  25. So we really haven't gotten any further towards a negotiation.2:47
  26. A point reiterated tonight by Zelensky.2:52
  27. Unfortunately, the Russian side has once again chosen war.2:55
  28. He doesn't want to change anything.2:59
  29. He doesn't want to admit that his war pleases only him and only those who profit from it.3:01
  30. Ukraine has seized this war's momentum, with long -range strikes that have interrupted as much as a quarter of Russian oil refining.3:07
  31. And for the first time since 2023, Ukraine is seizing more territory on the front than it's losing.3:15
  32. But Putin today indicated he wanted Russian soldiers in Ukraine to, quote, work.3:23
  33. An indication he will continue to wage war.3:27
  34. This is Putin signaling that he believes that Russia can still prevail.3:31
  35. And the Ukrainians are certainly, they have momentum, both with all the drone strikes and the fact that they have been taking back territory from the Russians.3:34
  36. So they are doing better, but they haven't won yet either.3:42
  37. And this could be still going on for a very long time.3:46
  38. A long war already, with no end in sight and no Russian willingness to negotiate.3:49
  39. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Nick Schifrin.3:55
  40. Support journalism you trust.4:08
  41. Support PBS News.4:10
  42. Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.4:12

American accent training with PBS NewsHour's report on Putin's rejected peace talks

This is a news narration, not a scene or a lecture: correspondent Nick Schifrin presents the story, hands off to Putin's own words, then reads from Zelensky's open letter before returning to his script. The pace measured for this clip is 192 words per minute, faster than 54 percent of the catalogue, so it rewards you once slower clips feel too easy. The level is C1: the vocabulary runs to words like "boorish", "taunted", "subtext" and "diplomats", and full subordinate clauses replace the short exchanges you get in dialogue clips.

The accent is American, Schifrin's own delivery plus the quoted diplomatic English around him, and no reduced forms were measured in this recording, so every word lands close to its full form rather than blurred together. That makes it a solid pick for english listening practice with a single steady narrator: you hear clear broadcast speech on a real story, Zelensky's letter and Putin's public answer to it, rather than casual fragments.

Practising pronunciation on the rare words in this report

Three lines carry most of the work here. Putin's own answer is blunt: "I said there is no point in meeting." Practising it trains a falling, closed intonation, the kind that shuts an answer down rather than opening it up.

  • "The only purpose for the Ukrainian side would be to stop the advance of our armed forces." The stress sits on "only purpose", said unhurried, and it is worth repeating until that emphasis is automatic.
  • "That letter was truly insolent in tone." A short judgment sentence built around one rare adjective, "insolent", so slow it down before you try it at full speed.
  • "If it wasn't obvious already, the war in Ukraine has come home to Russia." The contraction "wasn't" has to stay clean even though Schifrin does not slow down for it.

How to shadow this line by line: working through Nick Schifrin's report

Work through this report in the order it was said rather than jumping around: each line sets up the vocabulary the next line leans on, and that order is where english speaking practice on a real news script actually pays off.

  • Start with line one, "Tonight, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Russia of choosing war over peace." Repeat it until the stress lands on "accusing" and "choosing", the two verbs carrying the sentence's judgment.
  • Move to Putin's flat rejection, "I said there is no point in meeting." Match its short, closed intonation before you try opening the next clause the way he does.
  • Take "That letter was truly insolent in tone." on its own first, said slowly, since "insolent" is the word doing all the work.
  • Finish on "If it wasn't obvious already, the war in Ukraine has come home to Russia." and practise the contraction "wasn't" at speed, since the clip does not pause for it at 192 words per minute.
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