The Duran Podcast - Kiev Cut Off, Bridges Targeted; EU's Last Card, Seize $200B Russian Assets

Episode Date: October 3, 2026

Kiev Cut Off, Bridges Targeted; EU's Last Card, Seize $200B Russian Assets

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening in Ukraine, what is happening on the front line, what is happening with strikes on bridges now, on energy transmission, the energy infrastructure. We see a change of approach from the Russian military and the situation with Ukraine continues to get worse, not only from a military perspective, but also from a money economic perspective. They need a lot of money, Ukraine, a lot, well over 90 billion at this point, maybe 150 billion, is what they need, 200 billion? Yeah. And they're going to burn through that very quickly, by the way.

They'll get it, but they'll burn through it. 200 billion, what is that between friends? I don't think I'm exaggerating? No, you're not exaggerating at all. And one French official, there's obviously a French official, actually told Le Monde that this is like watering a desert. That, you know, you pour more water on and it all gets evaporated. What did these people in Europe expect? I mean, but anyway, that's suddenly what they're confronted by.

And as you rightly say, the demands for more and more. money incessantly come, and Ursula, of course, and Kyokalas, of course, wants to give them that money. I mean, so, you know, that's that dynamic. But yes, absolutely, the financial economic situation in Ukraine is dire and it's going to get worse and worse still. But let's first begin with a discussion of these latest Russian missile drone strikes. And the key thing to say about them is that, yes, the Russians are now attacking the Ukrainian energy system. They are also attacking bridges, but look at the places which they are attacking. They attacked an electricity substation that transmits electric power principally to Kiev itself. It has power coming from nuclear power plants,

mostly I understand. It then rechannels them and it sends them to Kiev. So the Russians attack the electricity substation. They attack a power station that provides power to northern Kiev and to the Northern Kiev region. They attack a large facility that stores batteries. Now, these are not the kind of batteries that you put in electric cars or things of that kind. I am confident that these are the batteries that you use in electricity substations and things of that kind. In other words, this is an attack on the energy infrastructure. They've developed new drones. which have whiskers. They're called the whiskers drones. They are able to cut power lines. And where are they cutting the power lines? They're doing it around Kiev. And they're using the same or

similar types of drones to cut the cables on the suspension bridges in Kiev itself. Notice, it's Kiev. Kiev's energy, Kiev's data centers, as we've discussed in a recent program, Kiev's railway station and its railway infrastructure, and now the bridges

that are used to link the two parts of Kiev, the part on the East Bank and the part on the West Bank. This is all, clearly now, a policy to isolate Kiev. I mean, that's absolutely clear to me,

to make Kiev unusable to cut off its power, to cut off its internet, to cut off its communications, to cut off its transport links, both to the west, the railway systems, and to the east across the bridges.

It is a clear plan to isolate Kiev itself, and ultimately to make Kiev itself unusable. And as we discussed in a recent program, to force the Western embassies, the Western NGOs, the Western advisors to leave and ultimately the government in Kiev itself to leave. Now, the attacks on the bridges are the most interesting thing.

Because to be clear, people can still, even if the bridges go, there will still be possible for people, people to move between the various different parts of Kiev because they can use the metro system, which goes under the river. But you can't continue to send to transport. If the bridges go, you can't use transport to keep Eastern Kiev supplied. Many of the important facilities are actually located in Eastern Kiev. So that isolates, that cuts them off from the West as well.

It means that they won't be able to get heavy equipment, those sort of things. Eventually, this is clearly a plan, as I said, to force the West out, to hollow out Kiev, to create a situation, I believe, when Kiev itself becomes ripe for the taking, And we continue to get all of these rumors and reports of a Russian buildup in Buryansk region with a potential operation in Charnigof region. And we see the Russians systematically, methodically expanding their footprint in Sumi region as well, all of which looks to me preparatory for some kind of move towards Kiev probably next year. Yeah, I was going to say that what we're seeing right now with Kiev is just the beginning. Yeah. I mean, Russia hasn't even started to isolate Kiev.

No. What happens when they do get to the point where Kiev is isolated? I mean, are we going to see a ground operation? are the Rada, the parliament, Zelensky administration, they're going to have to make a choice, whether to stay or leave. If they leave, do you even need a significant operation? Or do you just wait for the whole city to just fold? To answer you.

If you don't have the government, the administration in the capital, it's not really a capital anymore, is it? Well, exactly. To answer the first part of your question first, if we get to this point and everything that I am seeing leads me to think that that is the point that the Russians are working towards, the point that you said, that I cannot myself imagine that the Russians do not have a plan to occupy Kiev physically. In other words, a ground operation of some kind is certain to follow. I mean, otherwise, what is the point of doing all of this? And it makes sense because if you listen to what the Russians are saying, if you listen carefully to what Putin said in his comments at Valdai,

he clearly doesn't believe that the government in Kiev is legitimate, that we've known for a long time. He clearly doesn't believe that the government, in Kiev is capable of engaging in serious negotiations that we've known for a long time. He clearly believes the government in Kiev is a bunch of terrorists. I mean, he's all but said that. So, well, it's not all but said that. He has said that.

So in light of that, from a Russian perspective, taking control of Kiev and establishing what they would say was a legitimate government there in place of the existing one, I would have thought is part of the strategy the Russians must have in order to bring this war to a victorious end. And the Russians increasingly are talking about victory. Putin in comments he made just before he went off to, well, he gave his comments of Valdar. He again said victory will be ours. You almost reversed the coup of 2014, right? Well, effectively, yes.

You reverse it. You reverse it. That's exactly what he. You would install your own government and a new government in Kiev. Exactly. Of course, the West won't recognize it. Probably most of the world won't recognize it. Who in Ukraine would recognize it?

Who in the world? Well, that's the key. That's the most important thing. ultimately what the West thinks, what the rest of the world even thinks, matters less than more people in Ukraine themselves think. But anyway, that's obviously part of what the Russians are doing. The Russians are also moving systematically to close down every other part of the Ukrainian economy.

I mean, the attacks on the Internet are clearly part of that, other attacks on the railway system. We're going to see more attacks, I'm sure, on the energy system as well. We continue to have the sea blockade of Odessa and of the Black Sea ports. The Russians are now imposing their own reverse sanctions on the West. Now, this is something that people have not seen, But the Russians have imposed a ban on exports of diesel oil. But at Valdai, Putin said, actually, we have lots of diesel oil. We are not short of diesel oil. So that begs the question of why exactly is Russia continuing to implement this export ban on diesel oil?

And he said so. We're not going to export diesel. We're not going to start any of these other plans, grain deals or anything of that kind, unless the West lifts sanctions. He linked he leaked diesel, the question of the diesel oil export ban to the sanctions. He did it very softly, but the words were clearly there. And apparently this has been a message that the Russian, have also been giving privately as well.

When there's been suggestions, for example, that the blockade on the ports, the black sea ports, be lifted, the Russians are linking all of that now. In other words, Ukraine resuming its grain exports to the West lifting sanctions. Well, we know that isn't going to happen, and that's inconceivable. But that again tells us how, well, the extent to which the Russians collectively are hardening their stance now, they're maintaining, they're extending these shortages, these diesel oil shortages,

and they're doing this now as part of a political strategy relating to the conflict in the Ukraine itself, and they are refusing point blank to lift blockades or do any of those things. So the pressure on Ukraine is going to continue. It is going to intensify. The metallurgical industry has collapsed. The machine building industry, obviously, which is connected to the metallurgical industry has also collapsed. Ukraine's ability to produce shells. You need steel for shells. That's collapsed as well.

Ukraine, by the way, used to provide supply, export steel to the European Union. That's effectively ended now. The Ukrainian economy is in free fall. So all of that is. taking place, but we must not lose sight of the fact that the center, the focus of Russia's air campaign is Kiev. That is the primary objective that the Russians, the primary target that the Russians are aiming at now. And the pressure on Kiev is relentless and it continues day and night, and it's clear that air defenses in Kiev essentially don't exist.

And there's no air defense missiles anymore, ground air defense missiles anymore. And we're now getting information that Ukraine's fleet of F-16s is in severe trouble, too, that they can't really cope with the situation and the airframes are beginning to break down. Yeah, the only option left for NATO and for the West is going to be to take those Russian assets. Yeah. That's it. They don't have any other cards to play at all. I mean, they're messing around with Kaliningrad, and they've got these grand, big ideas of some sort of invasion or encirclement of Kaliningrad.

It's all nonsense stupidities. That's going to take us to a nuclear conflict. But the real, the only practical thing that they could do. to keep Ukraine going for a little bit longer is to just take that $200 billion or whatever it is and hand it over to Zelensky. And that'll buy them what, a year? And what does it buy them if they don't even have the administrative control of the capital? It buys them a year or what?

In LeViv? I think what, yeah. But by the way, I agree with you. And I think everybody should be aware of the fact that this is coming. I mean, we've had objections from Euroclair. We've had objections from the Belgium government. I think precisely because there are no other options, the West, the Europeans eventually are going to embrace this option. I mean, unless there is a political revolution in Paris and Berlin,

unless Alice Vidal becomes Chancellor, and Marine Le Pen becomes president, which is possible. And in the case of Marine Le Pen, maybe fairly soon. But unless those two things, both of those things happen, Marine Le Pen by herself, president of France, without Alice Vidal, I don't really see her standing in the way. But without that kind of radical political change in Europe, At some point, over the next few months, the seizure of those Russian assets, the theft of those assets is going to happen. It is now a certainty. Obviously, there will be massive long-term financial effects.

There will be a further collapse in the whole system of international law and all of that. But they're not worried about those things. their priority, their overriding focus is to keep the war going, because the CIA is telling them, all you need to do is wait a little longer and the Russian House of Cards is going to come crashing down. We need to keep the pressure on sooner or later, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, maybe in five years. Who knows when? But eventually, Russia will crumble just as the Soviet Union did.

And then, of course, we'll be able to sort everything out. We'll break up the country with a stall our own government in Moscow. And at that point, the Russians will happily sign over all of this money to us and give us all of the other assets that we want in Russia to. That is what the Europeans are thinking and saying to themselves at the moment. That's what Mertz and the British and the Macro and Maloney and all of those people. And of course, Oscella and Kailas and the Swedes, all of these people, that's what they're saying and talking about with each other. Goodbye, Euroclear.

Goodbye, Belgium. They're going to be the first ones hit. And then the whole thing is just going to completely sink the European Union over time. When they take those assets, when they take those assets, yeah. It's going to be damage to all of Europe that's going to be irreversible. And, you know, I think I understand why Putin said at the Valdai conference, when he was asked about Russia doing anything to disrupt or break up the European Union, Putin said they're doing it all on their own.

We don't need to do anything. What do you think? What do you want to bet he was referencing the fact that he knows that eventually they're going to take those assets? Because he also mentioned that Valdai, that it's unacceptable. to use the interest of those assets to fund the war. Putin made it very clear. That's our money. Absolutely.

He said unacceptable that they're using the proceeds from those assets and giving them over to Ukraine or wherever they're going. So he mentioned that as well. I think Putin is well aware of the fact that they're going to take that money. And honestly, Russia, they don't really need to do much as far as the EU is concerned. Yeah, because as you correctly said, the 200 billion was going to buy them a little more time, but not in the end very much. And Putin knows it, and Putin also knows that they're going to seize the money. And you're absolutely right.

That is exactly what he was referring to. When I read those words in the Russian readout, the transcript of his words, I thought exactly the same thing as you. There's no doubt about this at all. Anyway, that's the overall picture that continues to be developments on the front lines. The Russians, there's no further commentaries, there's Radovka, all the others. They're saying that the O'Rejov thing is now almost ended. I'm sure that this is right, that O'Rejov is now in tight quadrant and that things are finally collapsing there. There's been a very complicated battle around Dobropelia.

The Russians surrounded Dobropelia and a Ukrainian garrison there. Then according to some reports, the Ukrainians managed to break through and create space through the cordon, and where they broke into the circle around Dobropelia only for the Russians to counter attack and surround them all over again. But again, I mean, we can get into the details of this, but everybody can tell. You can see the Dobruppelia, the battle there, it can only have one outcome, which is that the Russians are going to win in Dobropelia. The Russians are systematically clearing various Ukrainian holdout positions in Khadikov region. This is turning into a very important battle. There's two battles.

at the north. There's the one in Sumi region and in parts of Kharkov region, which I think in the end is going to be focused on Kiev, as we discussed earlier in the program. But there is the other part of what's happening in Kharkov region, eastern Kharkov region, which is about wrapping up the Dombas, closing the supply lines from the north to the Wutslaviansk and Kermatosk, establishing that pincer. And then we've had the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Lehman, about which there has been probably far too much coverage altogether. We've had to discuss this. One very, very highly regarded Russian war reporter said yesterday that the scale of this offensive has been exaggerated, that basically these are raids rather than a properly organized offensive. I think probably there has been an offensive of some kind,

and it has captured some ground, but it's not making very much progress, and it is not changing the overall situation in the war. It is just depleting Ukrainian resources even faster, It's bringing Ukrainian troops out of their fortified positions into open country, where the Russians can hunt them and destroy them. And I think that that is probably what is happening. The ground war is going badly as well. It has none of the drama that the war in the sky does. But the two wars complement each other.

And the one cannot be understood without the other. It's all going bad for Ukraine and the collective west. Yes. Yeah. But it's interesting, the collective west, does it appear to want to recognize that? Oh, absolutely. They're integral. Neither Rutten or Brussels, neither UK, nor Trump.

No, no. No, because ultimately, ultimately, it's not even about Ukraine. Yeah. It's, I mean, you've said this in, we've said this in several programs on your channel. It is a long-term conflict between Russia and the West. And this is part of this battle is one battle in a long drawn-out war, a war that's going to be fought through economics, through media information in the media space, propaganda, through internal subversion, through all sorts of different. things, it's going to be fought that way. And it's going to be drawn out over many years with the Americans, the CIA, basically giving

it away in a report that they've now circulated amongst Western intelligence agencies. The model that they're going to try and apply is what they think happened to the Soviet Union, gradually put the pressure on the Soviet Union. Over time, incrementally, you destabilize it internally. You put pressures on its economy, and the whole thing comes crashing down. That is the West's plan. If the West loses in Ukraine, well, it's a battle lost, but it isn't the end of the war. All right, we will end it there.

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