The Duran Podcast - Kursk cauldron closed. Russian buffer zone Sumy

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Kursk cauldron closed. Russian buffer zone Sumy

All right, Alexander, let's talk about Kursk and everything that has happened in Kersk over the last week. The very quick collapse of the Ukraine military, Putin's trip to Kersk, being briefed by Yerazimov, Putin talking about the Ukraine soldiers who have been captured in Kersk and their fate under Russian law and international law, talking about mercenaries as well. You may want to talk about that, the Geneva Conventions and whether they apply to mercenaries or not. Putin said a lot, actually, on this topic. But we have the collapse in Kursk. We have Sujah now, which is pretty much under full control of the Russian military. There might be some pockets in Sujja or outside Sujah where you still have some fighting or some Ukraine military.

And you have the retreat of Ukraine, which, according to... Tysersky, the commander in Ukraine, is a very orderly and well-organized retreat, which it is not. And then we can discuss Sumi as well. I think Sumi is interesting because Russia does have a foothold now in Sumi, and we do have news that the Ukraine government has announced evacuations in many villages in Sumi. So they're obviously very worried. Anyway, let's start with Kursk and Putin and everything that he said and your thoughts. Well, I think the first thing to say is to talk about the military operation.

This is one of the best executed military operations that the Russians have conducted over the course of this war. And it tells you an awful lot. It tells you that the Russian military is now achieving very, very high levels of proficiency. I mean, they've obviously been learning an awful lot about how war this kind of war is conducted. They're able to coordinate forces around quite a comprehensive. complex, battlefront, they're able to move them very fast and they're able to operate all the various different parts of the military in a very, very coordinated way. So, you know, it was all done at great speed by apparently relatively limited Russian forces. I mean, we're not talking about

hundreds of thousands of Russian troops pouring into Kusk and defeating the Ukrainians. There's even some reports that I've seen in the Russian media which say that the Ukrainians still have or had actual numerical superiority in Kusk. But the Russians planned it very carefully. They were moving towards achieving their objective over several months. By December, apparently they were already starting to send drones over the road. the main supply roads interfering with Ukrainian supplies. Then a few weeks ago, about two weeks ago, they captured this key village of Svelykovo, which is near one of the main supply roads.

And then before the Ukrainians were able to reorganize, they struck from multiple directions and they moved very, very fast. And they conducted this extraordinary special forces operation using the gas pipe that we've talked about, sending a force of almost of 800 men, it turns out. I mean, originally it was said it was 100 men, then 300 men. In fact, it was 800 men inserted behind the Ukrainian front line, but everything moved very, very quickly. And on the Ukrainian side, you're now seeing growing problems.

And it's important to say, again, that the Ukrainian forces in Kuzk were men. made up of elite brigades, paratroopers mostly, but also some assault brigades, which are, you know, well-trained brigades, and the Idaar brigade, which is one of the highly motivated ultra-nationalist brigades in the Ukrainian forces, which have the ideology of the 1930s and all of that. So, you know, we're talking about some supposedly elite brigades, and they collapse, The troops fled. There appears to have been a complete loss of control by the Ukrainian leadership. The talk about an orderly withdrawal that Sirsky is putting out,

orderly withdrawal to better defended positions and all of that is absolute nonsense. And the chaotic state of this withdrawal, which has apparently left large groups of Ukrainian troops surrounded in many places and probably the remaining Ukrainian troops, according to Putin, who are still in Kusk region, also surrounded there. Well, that has been so bad that even the Western media is talking about it. I mean, we've had big article on the Financial Times, which sets out the reality of this debacle really, very clearly and unsparing. So this was just an implosion and a clear-cut Russian victory at incredible speed after very careful preparation and a Ukrainian collapse, which also happened at incredible speed and in the most disorganized way. Now, if this is going to start repeating itself elsewhere along the front lines, then we are actually.

potentially very close to a Ukrainian military collapsed. But that's an if, and maybe we shouldn't speculate too much about that at the moment, what we can say is elite Ukrainian brigades in Kusk, the forces that had been getting the best supplies and the most reinforcements collapsed, collapsed suddenly in the face of a very well-planned and very well-executed Russian offensive. Yeah. We do know the best men, the best soldiers,

best weapons, the best supplies, it was all funneled into Kersk over the last seven months. That we do know. Yeah. So I think it says a lot of what happened in Kersk. Your thoughts about Putin's visit to Kursk and what he said while he was in Kersk. Of course, everyone is talking about what Putin was wearing, which was obviously a signal as well, but he did say some very interesting things while he was in Kersk. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And I think the most interesting thing, the most important thing is, that they're not going to stop once they've driven the Ukrainians out of Kusk. In fact, he's already been saying several times that the Russians are already in Sumi region. This is the Ukrainian region that immediately adjoins Kusk region. And apparently the Russians now, they're talking about creating another buffer zone in Kusk region, of course, sorry, in Sumi region. We don't know how extensive that's going to be, but clearly that is, Clearly, that is the plan.

And notice, by the way, that Putin was talking about that, even as there's been all this chatter about a ceasefire. So the Russians are going to move further, deeper into Kusk. Oh, sorry, into Sumi region. The Ukrainians are very disorganized, difficult to see how they can arrange and build up front lines quickly. But of course, Sumi region is very important because it's not that far now from Kiev itself. If the Russians start gaining control of large sections of Sumi region, if they capture the town of Sumi itself, that's probably not their plan at the moment. But if they overdid, Sumi is on the main road to Kiev.

And Kiev, I believe, is about 70 kilometres away. So we would have the Russians with a pathway along a main road, a main arterial road, to Kiev itself. And well, I'm not saying it will happen, that conceivably we could have the Russians again outside Kiev. I could say unequivocally, that that is what the Ukrainians today are really worrying about. I mean, that's what Zelensky and Searski and all of those people in Kiev. They'll be panicking about because Zelensky has always been very, very sensitive, very, very nervous about having the Russians return to Kiev. Yeah, it's interesting. Zelensky wanted to hold on to Kursk, desperately to hold on to Kursk, because he said it was going to be used as a bargaining chip. in future negotiations for other territory that Russia holds. And now he's not only lost Kursk,

he's losing Sumi as well. Yes. Yes. And that was why he wanted to hold on to Kursk, by the way. Ever since the Russians began the Kharkov incursion in May of last year, he's been very, very worried about a big Russian offensive in the north towards Kiev, to the point where he's often neglected, and not just Zelensky, by the way, but the military leadership in Kiev has often starved the front lines in the south, you know, in Dombas of supplies, because they're so worried about what the Russians might do closer to Kiev. And I think that was the reason, why they clung on to Kusk, having they saw Kuzk as, you know, an obstacle, controlling Kuzk was an obstacle for the Russians to enter Tsumi region and to push on towards Kiev itself. Instead, by clinging on to Kuzk region, or the area that they captured in Kuzk region, they've brought that possibility much closer.

Yeah, they could have built defenses in Sumi instead of wasting their time, seven. months trying to hold on to Russian territory that everyone knew they would not be able to hold on to for much longer. The statements from Putin about mercenaries, about captured Ukraine military, his attire, what did you think of his presence in Kursk, the message that he's trying to send? I have to say, and we've discussed it in another program, but the fact that he turns up in full military uniform, which he hardly ever does. I mean, I don't remember Putin wearing full military uniform at any time since the start of the special military operation.

He used to do this sometimes in the early years of his presidency, you know, shortly after he took over from Yelsin. There's a few pictures of him dressed in military uniform around that time. But he clearly never felt comfortable in it and stopped doing it. But the fact that he did it this time, I mean, it conveys to the soldiers and to the Russian people that he is absolutely a war leader, that he is, you know, waging war and that he prioritizes the security of Russia and that he's going to fight this war or lead Russia. in this war until victory. That is the message that I think this conveys. By the way, it's created a huge bus across the Russian internet, the fact that he was there. Even mainstream Russian media had been picking up on this.

So it was a strong political message in itself. And well, the things about the merciless. The claims about Ukrainian soldiers having committed war crimes, unfortunately, we're now getting quite a lot of evidence that things like that were actually done. We had a whole program with Patrick Lancaster in which he talked about what he saw in Ruskaya Prezno, one of the villages. I want to stress, we're not making any conclusions, rushing to any conclusions here. But the Russian authorities have come to conclusions.

And I mentioned the presence of the Idaar Brigade. And people like that, I can unfortunately well imagine, would do these sort of things. So this has angered people in Russia very predictably. And of course, they're saying these people are criminals and they should be tried. And we can't even consider exchanging them. this time, as we've exchanged other Ukrainian troops before, and that they need to be punished and promised vigorously for what they did in Kusk. So this again cranks up the pressure.

It means that the Russians are in an unyielding mood. All right, we will end the video there. The durand.com. We are on Rumble, Odyssey, Bitree, Telegram, Rockfin, and X. go to the Duran shop, pick up some merch, like what we are wearing in this video update. The link is in the description box down below. Take care.