The Duran Podcast - END of Ukraine resistance in Donbass and Zaporozhye

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

END of Ukraine resistance in Donbass and Zaporozhye

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the military situation in Ukraine, and we had an interesting meeting between Putin and Yerazimov a couple of days ago, and interesting statements from Yerazimov, but even more so from Putin. We have a string of cities, towns, villages that the Russian military announced that they have captured. We also have statements from Putin talking about the terms of Ukraine's withdrawal from Donetsk, pretty much being meaningless for Russia as the military advance continues, hinting, not even hinting, stating that they are making progress towards Slaviansk.

With the capture of Sivarsk, this opens up the way. towards Slaviansk, and as we know, Slaviansk is pretty much the last major stronghold, major city for Russia to capture, and then it will be able to announce that it has full control of Doryansk. So that is why Putin says that the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Dynetsk as being part of the negotiating terms is not as meaningful anymore for Russia, which is interesting because that would mean that Russia's next terms, as far as military withdrawal, will engage. include other regions, regions more to the west. Nikolaev, Votessa, Harkov, Dnipro, Petrosk, who knows what they will announce. But he also talked about a buffer zone as well and the

creation of a buffer zone, which includes Sumi and Harkov and also Dripro-Petrov. So I think we see where all of this is heading and it is heading towards the Dnieper, is where it's heading and maybe even past the Nipber. So your thoughts on the military situation and that meeting between Putin and Yerazimov. Yeah. I mean, the first thing to say is that 2025 is turning for Ukraine into a year of unmitigated disaster. I mean, it started, if you remember, with the collapse in Cusk, which is absolutely disastrous collapse. It's strange how people no longer talk about, because Western media is not talking about the whole

course operation entirely. And then we've had this relentless Russian offensive that started in early summer and now it's brought fruit. So now Gerasimov and the other generals spoke to Putin. This was a meeting to place, I think, in Rostov. I think this is, this time I think Putin really did visit the headquarters. And the story that they gave him, the information that they gave him, the information that they gave him was that the Russians obviously controlled Pachrovsk, Ukrainian resistance in Mernograd, the neighboring city has collapsed so that the Russians control Mernograd. Almost as important, the Russians also control the town immediately to the north of Pachrovsk at Mernograd, which is Rodinska. So the entire Pachrovsk, Conabay,

is now fully under Russian control. And the Russians, that puts the Russians in a very, very strong position to outflank Slovians, Kramators from the south, and they continue to fight in another town, a little to the east, called Konstantinovka. It looks like that battle is progressing rapidly as well. But anyway, so those major places, Pagrosk, Mironograd, Rodinska, fully under Russian control. And then the generals also said that there's also been major advances in Zaporosia region. So the town of Gulliapolia, which are discussed in many places,

that's fallen, according to the generals. Gulliapolier in a famous historic town in Ukraine, in Zaporosia region, a center of Kostak, the Cossacks. It was one with long storied history. According to the generals, the Russians have captured it. The battle there, by the way, for Gulliapolia was very fast. It lasted just a few weeks. The Russians have crossed the Ganshaw River and are breaking through all the fortifications. As Putin said, Gulli Apolle is the second biggest town in Zaporosia region

that was still under Ukrainian control. There's one important place left, which is O'ECHOV. But O'Rejov looks likely to be surrounded very, very soon. And to the west of O'ECHOJov, The Russians also said that another important place called Stepnogorsk has also fallen under Russian control. So the Russians very close now to encircling Stepnogorsk and establishing a cauldron there if the Ukrainians choose to defend it. Just to say, Oreckhoff was the town from which the Ukrainians launched their failed 23 summer counter-offensive. Anyway, now, the Ukrainians are denying all of this. They insist that

they're still in northern Pakrovsk. They insist that they still have troops in Mernograd. They insist that these stories, these claims that the generals are making are all lies. I mean, that's what the Ukrainian general staff has said. The problem with that, And it's a problem that the Western media, by the way, which goes always with what the Ukrainian general staff is saying. The problem with that is that the Russians then released lots of footage after these announcements showing Russian soldiers all over Mirnograd and Rodinska and unveiling flags, which puts the fact that they control these places beyond all reasonable doubt.

So, there doesn't seem to be any doubt that Mernograd and Guglia as well flags all over Goli there doesn't seem to be any doubt at all that the Russians do control all three of these places. Ukrainian commentators themselves accept that Guglapolier is lost. Julian Gepke, the German journalist from Bill Zayton, who is very close to Ukraine and who gets information from the Ukrainian military. He's also admitted that Mernograd itself is lost. And though we've had no photos, pictures from Stepnogorsk, even the Ukrainians admit that the Russians are operating well to the north and east and west of Stepnogosk, which would only be possible realistically if the Russians are indeed in control of that town. So it looks as if what Gerais

and the General said has been externally corroborated and there is no reason to doubt that it is true. I'm also just quickly going to say that we've had a lot of information from Kupiansk. Remember Kupiansk? I'm going to ask you about Kupiansk. Ukrainian counter attacks there. Again, lots of footage from Kupiansk. The Russians say that they control Kupiansk. The pictures have appeared now showing Russian troops conclusively in places in Kupiansk, which the Ukrainians say that they've recaptured. Of course, many people are struggling to reconcile that with the Ukrainian claims. There's suggestions that the Russians have brought more troops into Kupians, that they're counter-attacking,

and that they're pushing back the Ukrainians again and all of that. Possibly that is true. I mean, I'm not there. But it doesn't look as if the Ukrainian counterattack in Kupiansk, if it ever took place in the way that has been claimed, it looks as if that counterattack has run out of steam and that the Russians are back in Kupiansk. And that there will be soon, no doubt at all,

that the place is it also securely under Russian control. So a day of disaster, a rather a series of disasters, one after another. I mean, I don't remember a time since the early weeks of the special military operation when the Russians announced the capture of so many important places in one day. And if you look at the places that they are capturing, coming back to what you were saying, I mean, the fall of Pakrovsk and Mernograd and Rodinska now really does definitely mean that we are looking at the end of Ukrainian resistance in Dombas. And the fall of Gulliapolia means that we are also going to be looking very soon at the collapse of

Ukrainian resistance in Zaporosia region as well. That will just leave the city of Zaporosia itself on the east bank of the NEPA, but that, many say, is undefendable because the Ukrainian communication lines or supplies would have to be brought across the NEPA and the Russians are now sharing that they can stop movement of supplies across the NEPA bridges. So we are in the end game in terms of the wars in Dombas and in Zaporosia. And as you absolutely rightly said, Putin is saying now, if the Ukrainians agreed to withdraw from Dombas by this point in the war, it really makes no difference because we're going

to capture all these places very soon anyway. And as you rightly said, he says that the Russians are now moving fast towards Slaviansk itself. Yeah, the Ukraine military insists that Russia has not captured all of Bakrosk or Mirnograd and all of these areas. But even Trump, even the U.S. president in the press conference with Zelenskyy said that Russia is going to capture Donbass, Donyetzk. He said in a couple of weeks, a couple of months, he said, they're going to capture it. So he looked at Zelensky and he said, basically he said, take the deal. Take whatever deal is offered because, as we're going to. We're talking about territory, Russia's going to capture Dombasa.

Trump said it at the press conference. Yes. So that just shows you that whatever narratives or propaganda, the Ukraine military is putting out there as far as the progress of Russia in the Bakrowski-Donetsk sector, not even the United States and the president of the United States is believing it anymore. Yes. So I think that's significant. Why did...

Siersky and the Ukraine military put such an emphasis on Kupyansk when you have the second largest city in Zaporosia, for example, Goliapole, which is a big, big city, significant city captured in pretty much four weeks. Yes. All the focus was on Kupiansk. And meanwhile, Russia is just capturing a huge city in the Zaporosia sector. Why the emphasis on Kupiansk, specifically Kupiansk. I think what happened with the Ukrainians is that they got trapped inside their own narratives. Zelensky made a whole series of statements back in November that the Ukrainians were holding on successfully in Kupinsk, that there's only 60 Russian soldiers there.

What kinds of extraordinary stories? And so having made those claims, They felt a compulsion to make those claims true, or at least appear to be true in some way. So apparently they diverted large numbers of brigades to the Kupiansk area. They launched their attack, such as they were. Zelensky did his stunt outside Kupiansk, which, as far as I'm concerned, by the way, undermined the whole narrative that the Ukrainians were trying to peddle. And if the Ukrainians really had been in secure control of Kupians, they would have shown their people in Kupiansk in a completely different way.

As sending Zelensky himself to make a brief video a kilometer outside Kupiansk, undermine that narrative. But anyway, but the whole thing about the Ukrainians is that they're more about PR. And we said this many times, PR, narrative control and all of that. So what they wanted to do was to say, look, what the Russians are saying about capturing places like Kupians, it's all lies. And we can prove that it is lies because we are the people who are really in control. And then they would take that to Trump and they would say to Trump, look, we're telling you the truth. We said we want this great battle in Kupians.

We say that Kupiansk has always been under our control. Don't believe what the Russians tell you. And so all of this coverage, all of this activity, and as you rightly say, in the meantime, Soporosia collapses. I wonder if after the meetings in Florida, Zwanski is just going to abandon the whole Kupianzka operation. You know, just let it fizzle out because it's obviously its purpose was to try and convince Trump in the United States that Putin is lying and that we're actually in control of this area. And that means that we're also in control of the front lines and what's going on is actually

a stalemate or even better. It's a stalemate in our favor. I mean, that's obviously, that was the situation behind Coupionz, this obsession with Coupion. So now that you've had the floor. Florida talks, I wonder if Solynski is just going to say, okay, well, you know, it's run its course. Kupianzka's run its course. We're obviously not going to capture Kupiansk. So just let it go to the Russians and we move elsewhere. I mean, I don't know. It's something like that. Which is what happened earlier this year with a different town called Toresk.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's exactly the same narrative. So I think that may be my very well be right. But I think perhaps, and this is obviously, and pointless saying this to Zelensky, but Zelensky really does need to stop, or at least somebody in Ukraine, needs to really stop thinking about what the real military situation is looking like, because Zelensky still seems to be completely unwilling to make any substantive concessions at all. He's still digging in, and he's still talking about ceasefires, he's still talking about referendums, he's still talking about 800,000 man armies. He talks about the Russians being exhausted.

There's no sign that the Russians are exhausted, by the way. He's got to start listening to his own military intelligence chief, who is Budanov, who is for about a year now beginning to say things as they are, and who's just given a very interesting, very revealing interview in which he said that the Russians have indeed recruited another 400,000 men, that their forces are far from depleted or exhausted or any of these things, that the situation goes badly wrong, and that in any negotiation, we must understand that we are the weakest side, and they're the strongest side, and weak sides don't impose their conditions on stronger side. Now, Zelensky ought to be listening to this. He ought to be saying to

himself, well, I made this play with Trump. I tried to fool Trump in to think. thinking that, you know, we're standing firm in Dombas. I hoped that by doing that, I'd get into reopen the money flows and the weapons flows and that you go forward and start imposing more sanctions on the Russians. That hasn't worked. I'm facing a massive military crisis. The Money flows are about to stop. What I need to do is start speaking with people in Kiev, trying to find a way to bring this thing to an end, and accepting the fact that the Russian terms are the only ones on the table.

But of course, Zelensky is not going to do any of these things. He is incapable of doing those things, and nor is anybody else in Kiev. So what we're going to see, even as things start to fall apart, faster and faster from this point on, what we're going to see is more attempts to spin narratives and to tell stories. And at some point, the Western media, which has been going along with all of these narratives up to now, will start itself to become more critical. There's already a few journalists like Owen Matthews in Britain, who are starting to see through them. But gradually,

as events progress, this will become more and more obvious. But I don't think that Zelensky will ever stop doing this. I think in Ukraine, altogether, they will be doing that as well. And what we're going to get instead is more political in fighting in Kiev, revolving doors with ministers coming and going, people stacking up with filling up their suitcases and going abroad. And it's not going to be possible for them to make the kind of rational decisions that they need to make in this situation. Well, it's interesting about Budanov, just to wrap up the video, Budanov, when he's

making statements as revealing as they are, truthful statements about what's going on on the front lines, that's basically the intel agencies, the CIA. Yes. Behind Bud Boudanoff. So, I mean, you're getting a glimpse of perhaps what the U.S. intel agencies want to get out to the public domain through Boudanoff. So I think that's interesting because when you look at Zelensky, Zelensky is the mouthpiece, at least in my opinion, he's the mouthpiece of the neocons in the United States, the Kela. the grams.

To a certain extent, the UK establishment, I think the UK establishment may be splitting between Zillusioni and Zelensky. I think there is some sort of a split. Maybe the MI, this is just a guess, maybe the MI6 is more leaning towards Zilluzni while the British establishment is more aligned with Zelensky because the British political establishment

is also aligned with the Europeans. And Zolensky is very much the mouthpiece of the U.S. neocons and the Europeans. And so for them, their goal in all of this, if you could say the military strategy of these guys is to keep the conflict going. Yes. So that's why you see Zelensky, you know, resorting to all these media narratives and optics and trickery and stuff like that. Because for him, the important goal is to keep the conflict going. and the way you keep the conflict going at this point in time is you try and get the Trump

administration to cough up enough money and weapons, all the money and weapons that it has. So, I mean, I think this is the dynamic that's playing out in Kiev. Just what do you think and we'll wrap up the video? I mean, it's not a military strategy, but that's what's happening on the front lines is this thinking, these divisions and this thinking is what's translating to the front lines. That's exactly right. That is exactly what they're going to do. They're not going to come up with any kind of military strategy because they have none. And there is no military strategy that makes sense anymore. I mean, objectively, Ukraine has now lost the war. I mean,

after the fall, Amirnograd and Pakrovsk, and Gulia Poli, It's absolutely clear that at some point the Russians are going to win and win conclusively. I mean, when I say win, I mean, remember that as the Russians begin to break through, there will be a, and as always happens in attrition wars, the pace of events on the battlefields will accelerate. I mean, they've accelerated steadily since over the course. course of this year, they're going to accelerate even faster from this point on. I mean, maybe the Russians will pause for a few weeks to reorganize, but they sometimes do, but then they

will be moving further and faster, certainly by the end of the winter and certainly through the spring. So there is no military strategy that Ukraine can come up with to respond to that, but there There are political games, and they are games more than strategies, that they are going to play. And these will become ever more frenetic as the walls begin to close in. I don't think, as I said, negotiations with the Russians is anything that anybody really is thinking about. But as I said, you will see all of these complex political games, the Europeans obviously involved, all of them trying to keep the war going.

all of them trying to put pressure on the Americans. Exactly as you say, they'll be telling the Americans, look, all it needs, the Russians also are exhausted. Their economy is also running down. Their army is suffering these enormous losses. They can't keep this up for very, very much longer. So just supply. Just give another $100 billion. Just give another, all the Patriot missile interceptors that you've got.

maybe move forces to Europe and threaten no-fly zones or something of that kind, and that will prevent the collapse from happening because, you know, there's still something to play for, and the Ukrainians are fighting. The men on the front lines, the Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, don't believe this anymore. And one senses that they're becoming increasingly cynical about the war. This is why desertion rates are exploding because they sense that there is no strategic thinking taking place in Kiev any longer, that Ukraine no longer has a plan to win this war. And so they're saying, why should we fight and die when all that's going to happen is that

the Russians are going to win anyway? And what we're probably going to start to see is more desertions, a greater desertions. Apparently, one of the reasons why Gulli Apolle fell so fast was that Ukrainian soldiers fled rather than resist that because they can see that the writing is on the wall and they're not going to want to fight. You're going to have a few very committed ideological units as of... Aidar, the assault forces that Szyzky has put together, they will continue fighting and fighting resolutely and determinedly.

But more and more of the Ukrainian army is going to gradually crumble away, leaving bigger and bigger gaps on the front lines, which the Russians are going to exploit. This could all collapse much faster than people expect. Yeah. True. Very true. Could collapse faster. It could also drag on for a while. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see how all of this plays out in 2026. All right. We'll end the video there. The durand.com. We're on X-Rod rumbo on Telegram. We are also on substack and go to Dreadshop.

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