The Duran Podcast - Budanov admits Ukraine big counter-offensive is over

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

Budanov admits Ukraine big counter-offensive is over

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Ukraine and what is happening on the front lines. What is happening on, not on the front lines. We have some interesting statements from Budanov. Kind of admitted that the counteroffensive has failed. And it has failed. Yes. It has failed. And the Russians are advancing.

No big arrow offenses. They're just doing what the Russians have been doing from day one. Exactly. Grinding things out and grinding Ukraine down. What's going on? That's exactly what... That is exactly what is happening.

I mean, Budana has made a most interesting interview with Ukrainska Pravda. And of course, you know, you have to unscramble it a little, but basically he just said, I mean, you know, our army is out of, you know, we're out of schedule, whatever that's intended to mean.

But the reality is, what he was saying is, our offensive has failed. We haven't broken through. We haven't broken through in any part of the front line, in any place where we were attacking. All those tens of thousands of men who have died or been critically wounded over the last few months.

That has all happened to them for nothing. All that machinery or that expensive machinery we got from the West. That's all been burnt up. the tanks, the all of those things. And we're now critically short of shells. Of course, he didn't say that, but we all know that we are. And because our demands for shells have been so extravagant and inordinate, the US is itself now desperately short of shells,

as US officials are admitting. And if Israel launches a ground offensive in Gaza, there might be problems finding enough shells to cover it. But follow that aside, Budanov is basically saying the offensive has failed. They're continuing to launch light infantry assaults in the Rabotino-Verbovoje area. It's all happening now in increasingly cold, wet, windy weather, which must be a nightmare for the soldiers on top of everything else that has happened up to this point. But the reality is that in every other part,

part of the front line and even to some extent in the verbavoyer Rabotino area it's the russians now on the attack and the russians launched a big attack near the town of avdeyevka which is close to don't think this was any sort of attempt to swoop in on avdeyevka or capture the place immediately or do any of these things and if you actually work out which russian military use have been involved in this operation of Dejvka. They're all units drawn from the militia, the second call, the first call, which is in effect, the first court of the Russian army, which is in effect the Donetsk militia, which has now been taken under the control of the Russian Ministry of Defence. So we're not talking about the regular troops of the Russian army, but they've made significant advances in

Afdeyevka. Now, ever so gradually closing the vice around this particular town, but the major objective, as always, remains exactly what you said, to grind the Ukrainians down, to get the Ukrainians to deploy more reinforcements, to try to hold their positions there, to inflict more casualties on the Ukrainians, to thin further the Ukrainian battle lines. across the battlefronts, and to cause the Ukrainians to deplete their reserves, trying to plug these gaps in all of these various places. So it's gradual incremental pressure being exerted by the Russians right across the front lines, and we see it in the north near Kupiansk, we see it in Bahmert now,

where the Russians are pushing hard near Bachman, and we've seen it most spectacularly in Avdeyevka. And in the meantime, there's been another session, Medvedev has now said that 357,000 men have joined the Russian military since the start of the year. We're going to have before long a million Russian troops prepared to strike in Ukraine. But I say before long, probably sometime in the spring or summer of 2024. It's an amazing admission from Budanov. And you know, the mainstream media.

is at fault, the Olensky regime is at fault, the collective West is at fault, all of these tens of thousands of men died and injured for nothing. It gained nothing.

It gained absolutely nothing. Yeah. And you know, it's amazing that after Bahmoud, after Sudoviken, came out and said what the strategy of Russia is, which is to create

the scenario where Ukraine feeds their military into what essentially is Russian artillery that the Ukraine command that the NATO command has not figured this out so now you have pretty much

the same thing happening in FDFCA you have the same thing now happening in Rapportina you have the same thing happening in Kupianz it is I mean the Russians are I'm being very simple about this but I'm trying to summarize this but the Russians are just copy and pasting

this strategy across the front lines where they create the scenarios where you have this cauldron, they have fire control, Ukraine, for some reason, Ukraine continues to throw men into this cauldron and the Russians annihilate them. How come they can't figure this out? It's so bizarre. The way this, they've run this, this war, the Ukraine generals and the NATO generals, the smartest people, these guys are the smartest people in the world, the smartest military commanders in the world, doesn't seem like it. Well, you've explained it many times. You've explained it on this channel, on the Duran, and you've explained it many times on your own channel. One side, the Russians are military

professionals. They are fighting a war. The other side are amateurs in terms of actual kinetic war, but they are experts in one thing, which is public relations, media, that sort of stuff. And, you know, this morning, over my breakfast coffee, I was reading The Daily Telegraph, heroic defence in the day of the Ukrainians are standing firm there, claims about how they've managed to destroy, you know, improbable numbers of Russian tanks and armored vehicles, of which, by the way, there is no sign. And I mean, this particular story is undoubtedly wildly exaggerated. But, you know, that is what it's about.

It's about conveying an image, a story, a narrative of, you know, a heroic defense and of the Russians being defeated in every place. Like, you know, a couple of, over the last week, before the crisis in, the Middle East took off, The British media was full of Ukraine's great naval victory in the Black Sea. You know, that the Ukrainians had somehow driven the Black Sea fleet, the Russian Black Sea fleet out of the Black Sea, which of course is completely not true. It has no reality, no actual military reality behind it.

As I said, they've sent two missiles against an empty building. they've done a certain amount of damage to two ships which were under repair. That's about it actually. But nonetheless, and they've caused the Russians to redeploy some ships from one black seaport to another black seaport. But this is a great victory. And this is the narrative that we're hearing every day, day after day, week after week. Now Zelensky himself and Budanov, they have enough connections. to reality.

And Budanaf especially, I think, understand a bit more about what he's really going on. But they're now trapped inside the narrative themselves. They can't really break away for it. The only thing that Zelensky seems able to do is he's able to swap a green jacket for a black one. That's all he's managed. What do you make of the strategy now,

which is to link Ukraine, to Israel to create this linkage of the two conflicts. I mean, obviously, that's the plan for Ukraine to not fall out of the media news cycle, but it's also the plan to link Ukraine to Israel, blame Russia for everything, say that these wars are connected somehow, and that's the way for Ukraine to continue to also receive money and financial aid. What do you think of this strategy? I think politically it's an extremely bad idea. This is my own view. I mean, I think what it will do is just highlight the fact for people in the United States, which is the place where all this plan is being hatched,

that in fact there are two wars on, and that appropriations for one, supplies to one side in Ukraine, is at the expense of supplies to another side, which is Israel. So, I mean, you know, what you're just doing, is you're by this plan, is you're going to draw attention to this fact. You might conceivably get,

one appropriation through Congress like this, but I think politically it's a very bad call. That's my own view. And I understand anyway that the Republicans in the House have made it clear that they're not interested in it. And I saw that Stephen Scullies, who they were perhaps counting on, has apparently pulled out of the attempt to become Speaker. I think it was a mistake for him to go for it.

And, I mean, the fact that he has cancer, poor man, is another reason not to do it. It was a pretty desperate move to try to place him in. But anyway, I think that all of these plans, all that they're doing is that they're hardening opposition in the House, in Congress, amongst Republicans there. And I think it was a mistake. And I think more likely than not,

after a lot of, you know, horse trading and fighting and battle things, somebody will emerge as Speaker. But whoever that is, that person will be less willing to make, move ahead with funding for Ukraine. I think this is now inevitable. Yeah. I wonder if Zelensky still has an opportunity to capitulate. He won't, but I wonder if there's still a little bit of an opportunity left.

And what are you, a final question. The IMF, they also told Ukraine that the money is drying up. What they need to do is raise taxes and find, for for the state to to get revenue. What more of a clearer signal can you get other than that, which is the IMF telling you, you know, sooner or later, you're on your own. I mean, if this was me, if I was in Zelensky's position, I mean, it's clear. If I'm going to save what's left, I better call up Russia or call up China to me to

something or I don't know. I just figure out a way to end this because it's going bad. With Steve Scalise, I thought with the Steve Scalise becoming the House Speaker, I thought maybe that's one ray of light for Ukraine and that Steve Scalise, he's pro-war. So at least that's some hope for Ukraine. But even that's been, that's over with now. I mean, there's, I don't see anything that is going Ukraine's way whatsoever. not that it ever has been going its way for the past year and a half during this conflict.

To be quite honest, it was just a lot of media hype. But now I think reality is getting very real. That's the best expression. This is call up China, call up Russia, and end this conflict. Absolutely. I mean, you know, China is the obvious one. And of course, Putin is going to China in a few days. We don't quite know when, but he's on his way there.

and the right thing to do would be to Korsesia-Shimpin, who's already spoken to Zelensky before, ask him to mediate a compromise and to set up some kind of discussion. And, you know, that is what Zelensky should do. I mean, there are other potential mediators, as Erdogan always, but the best one by far is China,

because China actually has some leverage over the Russians, and it's also able to provide funding for Ukraine. But he's not going to do that. And you're absolutely right. Now, the IMF advice on its face is absurd. What is Ukraine supposed to tax? In order to raise taxes, you need a functioning economy. Ukraine doesn't have a functioning economy.

What it has is a huge amount of money, wall of money that has been moving into Ukraine month after month, week after week, since the special military operation began. Stop that. Switch, you know, pull down the switch. And at that point, I mean, there is absolutely nothing left that you could tax. Now, the IMF knows that. Zelensky, I can't believe, even he doesn't understand that. So what the IMF is telling him is, we're pulling out, this is our advice. You know, you should follow this advice. But the reality is they're basically telling him,

this is over, we can't help you anymore. The Americans are going away. The Americans are drifting away from you. There's a limit to what the Europeans can do. And even the Europeans have admitted they can't replace the United States in this conflict. So, you know, you've got to find your own solution. And there's obviously there's only one, which is to do what you said, call Xi Jinping.

But they're not going to do it because Zelensky has trapped himself into a rhetorical hole. He has said so many things about Putin that he's not really going to be able to move. And we talked about Budanov. Budanov may have some understanding that this is. going badly wrong, but he still represents forces within Ukraine that are completely dead set against any kind of compromise. And I've said this before, I'm going to say it again, I think Budanov would prefer a heroic defeat and the destruction of Ukraine to a compromise which he would see as basically betraying the vision that he has.

committed himself so much to, and which, to be frank, he has done some pretty terrible things in order to see it happen. Yeah. Yeah, I find the fact that he's admitted to the ZNPP strikes that Ukraine's behind it, and then this statement admitting that the counteroffensive has indeed failed. It's interesting. He's talking a lot of truth over the past course of days, Bhutanov. He's admitting, revealing a lot of things.

Yes, yes. Interesting. Yes. It is interesting. I mean, here's an interesting man to watch. And to be honest, I'm sure Zelensky's already figured him out. But I think if I was Zelensky, I'd be very, very careful about what Badanov might do at some point over the next few weeks. If there's going to be any kind of sudden change of power in Kiev, I would not be at all surprised.

if Budanov is at the center of it. I would not be surprised, to be honest, if we saw Budanov emerges the next leader of whatever's left. Yeah. Yeah, whatever's left, exactly, yeah. Anyway, and you have the dumb Europeans taking the profits from the Russian frozen assets

and giving $1.7 billion to Ukraine. It's actually to the military industrial complex so that they create weapons and the peace stability funds that they can somehow. drag this on for how much longer a month, a month and a half, a couple of weeks. I mean, and it's going to ruin the EU. Oh, absolutely.

But they're getting the warnings from financial experts. Don't do this. I know. No, they can't help themselves. They can't help themselves. I mean, actually, I think that the fact that they're now being driven to do this is in itself a sign of how bad things are becoming. It signals the fact in the short term that they're not. They're becoming aware of the fact that both European electorates and the Americans are now turning strongly against continued funding for Ukraine.

So they've got to find some way to fund it. So steal Russian assets and do that as well. But I think behind that there is an even greater factor, which is that this whole thing is ending in a debacle. They can't give the money back to the Russians. I mean, that's something that they're not able to do. So this is the moment when they seize the funds and plunder them, because that's what it would be, and keep them for themselves. And that's really a sign, a strongest sign than any other,

that we're now coming to the end of this affair. And by the way, note that when we talk about $300 billion now, it's not the frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank. They've only found some of that. It's also the assets of private Russian individuals, which have also been frozen. This is going to destroy confidence in the European Union. It's going to destroy confidence. And the funny part about all of this, when I find hilarious, tragically hilarious, it's tragic because I'm living in in Europe,

is that the U.S. is cheering this on. Yes. Because the U.S. is like, yeah, do this because it's, you know, no one's going to want to put money in Europe anymore so they could park it with us. I mean, this is this is self-deletion on the side of the EU. Yeah, absolutely. They don't understand it, which is so extraordinary. It's swift all over again.

Swift all over again. It is so extraordinary. I mean, you know, and the extent of the disconnection from realities, you have yours of Borrell, goes to China. And he tells the Chinese, why don't you take us seriously? I plan that's one of the most you know unintentionally comic statements

I've heard all year actually you know you can't why don't you in China take Europe seriously we're a great geopolitical power that was what he said

I mean the Chinese who are polite people must have gone afterwards once he was out of the room and must have been beside themselves of laughter all right the durand dot local

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