The Duran Podcast - Nukes on the brain, Zelensky demands NATO boots on the ground

Episode Date: October 19, 2024

Nukes on the brain, Zelensky demands NATO boots on the ground

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what Zelensky said the other day at this meeting in Brussels with EU officials. He's presenting his victory plan. And so much more, his victory plan and so much more, NATO or nukes. I believe he threw Trump under the bus with his statements. I think we said on this channel, I said it. Many times we said on this channel, Trump should not meet with Zelensky, bad news and his revelations about what he told Trump were quite shocking. He's walked back a lot of those statements. And I think we got some insight into these secret annexes that are in the victory plan.

Anyway, where should we begin with all of the things that Zelensky said? And I would like to just quickly say, Zelensky is unraveling. He's coming apart. Yeah. And I think that's very, very clear. Anyway, your thoughts? Absolutely. He is completely coming apart.

And I think the first thing I would say, and I want to repeat this point again, I've made it in several places now. Anybody who thinks this is somebody who's going to negotiate and enter the wall is deluding themselves. I mean, the victory plan speech to the Rada, in effect, excludes that possibility outright. All the talk about nuclear weapons and acquiring a nuclear weapons capability does the same. I mean, quite apart from anything else,

even if Zelensky were to turn round now and say to the Russians, actually, I want to talk. After the things that he's just said over the last couple of days, including the victory plan, but above all, the talk about nuclear weapons, the Russians are going to say, no way. There is absolutely no way we can talk with someone like you. You are in effect threatening us with nuclear weapons. You did in effect the same thing during your Munich security

speech way back in 2020, in February 22, the one which said, you were in fact. The one which triggered our decision to start the military operation. After hearing all of this, the Russians are going to say to themselves, negotiating with this man and with the government he leads is absolutely impossible. And I mean, that is right and that is obvious, whether or not people quite understand the fact, what has just happened is that Zelensky has torched conclusively any possibility now of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. That is the first thing. The second thing I want to say is, again,

however much he's walked things back, after this speech that he has just delivered, after, in effect, threatening the Western powers as well with nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear war, I mean, even, you know, the most pro-Ukrainian, Western governments, like the British, even some of the neocons in Washington, must be surely asking themselves, what kind of a person is this? How can we work with him anymore?

I mean, they must be extremely concerned that Zelensky, as you rightly say, is unraveling and is talking in this utterly reckless and demented way. And the third thing is that we can see that Zelensky, far from being interested in negotiations, is perfectly well aware that Ukraine is losing the war. And now he's thrashing around for some way to turn the situation around. And he's got nuclear weapons on the brain, which he always has done. The Russians have always said that he has done. And now we see the proof. He talks about this to Trump. I don't think there's any doubt in my mind that that is what he did. And as for these three secret annexes, that he's not prepared to talk about.

Well, he goes out and talks about a comprehensive, non, you know, conventional deterrence force on the territory of Ukraine itself. He's now made it absolutely clear in subsequent comments that that means a NATO force in Ukraine. Now, some people were saying that this was all about, you know, basing missiles and doing that kind of thing. But he's made it absolutely clear now that he actually wants

boots, NATO boots, in the ground on Ukraine. And of course, his three annexes are all about further provisions for Ukraine in effect to be brought under the US nuclear umbrella. And that's the only thing that makes any kind of sense to me. I can't see that there's any other explanation behind it. He basically wants Ukraine to be protected by the United States from Russia up to and including the United States being willing to go to World War III on Ukraine's behalf. I mean, I don't know whether that's your view, but that's mine. Yeah, absolutely.

My question to you is, if I'm understanding Zelensky's property, I'm being very, very generous to Zelensky here when I'm calling it a proposition. I would say it's more of an extortion and a blackmail. But anyway, is basically what he's saying and what he said is either NATO goes to war with Russia or I get nuclear weapons and launch them into Russia. Either way, we're looking at a nuclear war. I mean, that's pretty much the options that Zelensky put out on the table. Now, just to be accurate and fair to Zeletsky, he was asked by the media about the nuclear statements,

and he said, no, no, no, no, we're not doing any of that stuff. We have no interest in nuclear weapons. That was the walk back after, I think, after he got the reactions that we saw from just about everybody from his statements. He then walked it completely back. What do you think about what I just said, which is basically what he's demanding of the West, either boots on the ground in Ukraine, long-range missiles launched into Russia, which would lead to nuclear war, or you give me nukes and I launched them into Russia, which would lead to nuclear war. I mean, with your thoughts. Well, I think you've got it exactly correct. I mean, the West is shocked and horrified by all of this, and they told him, for God's sake, we'll call all this back. One of the things that shows how angry

the Western powers are, is that there's clearly been a decision, at least in London, not to discuss Zelensky's speech. I mean, there's fairly an article about this. I mean, this extraordinary speech that he's just made to the Rada. And I commented about this yesterday. I made this point in my program yesterday before he went on and started talking about nuclear weapons. So I didn't know that he was also talking about nuclear weapons, going to talk about publicly about nuclear weapons. But he did publicly talk about nuclear weapons. He's obviously been talking about nuclear weapons in private. I cannot see any other possible explanation for what has happened. The West was furious and very shocked.

They said to their media, for heaven's sake, don't talk about any of this in public. And somebody, not just somebody, but I suspect an awful lot of people, have been phoning up here and saying, for heaven's sake, walk all this back. This is disastrous. The effect is going to have on the outside world, outside the West is going to be terrible. The effect is going to have on Western Publix if they find out about this is going to be absolutely terrible. And of course, what you've just done is you've played directly into the hands of the Russians. But as to what Zelensky is trying to do, you have

set it exactly right. He's trying to conduct what is effectively a bit of a piece of extortion. He says, bring me into NATO, give me your full protection, including bring me under your nuclear umbrella. Be prepared to wage World War III against the Russians, or I will start World War three, I will start nuclear war by myself without you. And if you do what I want, and this goes back to the speech itself, well, I've got all of these nice things, lithium and potassium and magnesium and all of these other things that exist in Ukraine. And, you know, you're welcome, you're welcome to have them because that was tacked on at the end of his speech as a sort of bribe. So on the one hand, the extortion on the other side, the bribe.

I mean, it's quite incredible. And no leader I've ever known of has acted in this way. And it just shows how completely out of control he is and how he is unraveling. in exactly the way that you said. Was this a balloon test by various forces in the collective West, Neocon forces? Zelensky coming out and talking about getting nuclear weapons if he doesn't get into NATO,

about offering all of Ukraine's resources, if he's allowed into NATO and if NATO protects Ukraine. I say that because I don't think it's a coincidence. Maybe it is, but I don't think it's a coincidence that right after Zelensky's statement about nuclear weapons for NATO, Bill puts out an article where they claim they interviewed a Ukrainian official months ago. That's what Bill says months ago. And the Ukrainian official told them that once they get the okay from up above, they can

have a weapon made in in two weeks they'll be ready in two weeks this was this article was was timed at least that's the way i i i look at it that i could be completely wrong this might be a coincidence but it seems like the minute zolensky made those statements and we were waiting for the reactions from world leaders from russia from the united states build comes out this article and says, well, we've known for months that Ukraine can, can create a bomb, or at least that's what this official tells us, this has you created official, that they can create a bomb in two weeks. Was someone trying to float something out there and to see the reactions? Yes. The first thing to say is that the Bill's citing article is extremely important

because it confirms, it confirms, I think, conclusively, the point that Zelenskyy, has been going around talking about nuclear weapons and about Ukraine having this nuclear weapons capability. And he's clearly been doing this for months. He's been telling this to the Americans. He's been telling this to the British. He's been telling this to the Germans, to NATO, to everybody that he can. And this has been floating around for a while. So this attempt to walk it all back now, we should not give any weight to whatsoever. Now, about how that article appeared, why that article appeared. Firstly, it was clearly intended to appear directly after Zelensky's comments and to provide support for Zelensky's comments. So it was

clearly done with the agreement of somebody by Bill on the part of Bill Zayton that they were encouraged to publish this information directly on. after Zelensky spoke. Now, Bill Citing is a German newspaper. It's very, very strongly supportive of Zelensky. It's very connected to the Atlantisist system, the Atlantis' opinion within Germany itself. It's part of the Axel Springer Group.

That's the flagship paper of the Axel Springer group, which was set up in the 1950s, by the British, by the way, after the Second World War, which has been particularly close to the British and to the Atlantis'ist currents in Germany. So I think it's entirely possible that what you say is true, that there are some people in the West who are now becoming increasingly desperate about Project Ukraine unraveling on their hands. And they may not just be floating this idea, but they may be pushing it as well, that they're trying to get people to say, well, look, we, this is real. What Zelensky is talking about is something he can actually do.

So for heaven's sake, give this man everything he wants, because if he doesn't, well, we see what he and the Ukrainians in their desperation might turn to. So that's how it looks to me. I have to say this. I mean, you know, built sighting as they want can come back and push back and argue otherwise. But to me, it looks as if this was coordinated by someone in Kiev, by someone in Germany, and presumably by someone in the United States and Britain or wherever. For the record, I think it was, I think it backfired.

I think that it's probably, in fact, almost definitely hardened opinion against Zelensky and the Ukrainians even further that the Pentagon in particular must be absolutely appalled by this kind of behaviour. And I think that it was a huge mistake, a terrible mistake. But that's how it looks to me.

a lost, desperate throw of the dice before the end, and one which, by the way, reveals the apocalyptic thinking that is part of the thinking of these people. Yeah, dangerous, dangerous thinking. And yeah, he walked it back right away, so obviously it completely backfired. I mean, he walked everything back within, five minutes of all of this stuff dropping. So my next question is,

Zelensky with these statements and with the build article, they make the case for the Russian special military operation, don't they? I mean, we've kind of come full circle. Munich 2022, Zelensky talking about nuclear weapons, Ursula says nothing, Olaf Schultz says nothing in Munich, Kamala Harris says nothing in in Munich. They just let Zelensky talk about nuclear weapons. Two, three weeks later, we got to the special military operation. Here we are with Zelensky once again talking about Ukraine getting nuclear weapons, talking about collective West missiles. A lot of missiles in Ukraine targeting Russia. I mean, he said it, targeting Russia. If Russia doesn't capitulate, if they don't negotiate with me,

based on my peace plan, we're going to have all these missiles from the U.S. UK, from France, from the US, from Italy, pointed at Russia. I mean, does he make the case for the special military operation? That's my question to you. Does he make the case for the SMO? Well, of course, well, of course he does. And that's why people in the West are going to be so one of the reasons why people in the West are going to be so angry with him.

Because he has just corroborated everything that the Russians have been saying. Putin can now take all of these words. And when he meets the Brazilians and when he meets the Indians and when he meets the Indians and when he meets the Chinese, he just produces them and says, I told you so. Look, read it all. This is somebody who absolutely loathes our country, who is prepared to get into, wants to get into full alliance with the West,

threatens us with nuclear war, talks constantly about nuclear weapons. He did this in February 2020. He's just done that. over again. And clearly, when we took that decision in February, that decision which so many people criticized us for, we were absolutely right. So absolutely it does. You go all the way back. If you go to the discussions that were taking place in Moscow in 2022, if you go back to the kind of the things that the Russians were saying at that time. If you read the text of Putin's address

to the Russian people, the one in which he announced the decision to recognize Donetsk and Lugansk and the subsequent decisions that were taken to launch the special military operation, he was talking about nuclear weapons then and about the threat from Ukraine of it acquiring nuclear weapons. And there were other comments and discussions and speculations in Moscow at that same time. And I remember Russian officials saying at that time that Ukraine does possess the ability, the capability to acquire nuclear weapons should it choose to. It has a substantial nuclear industry. It has large numbers of engineers and scientists. Obviously, it cannot be done in two weeks.

That is absurd. Even if the nuclear material were already stockpiled, even if all the equipment and machinery to put a nuclear weapon together existed. And it probably doesn't, by the way. But even if it existed, it can't be done in just two weeks. time. You would need at least a year, I suspect, even if everything was in place to do that. But if Ukraine were to initiate a nuclear weapons program, it has all of the material, all the science, all the engineers, all the laboratories, all the nuclear know-how to be able to translate

that into a potential weapon and do so in a relatively short time. So this is not a completely idle threat, though in the way that Zelensky and his officials talk about it, it is a fantastic one. Yeah, the part that bothers me is that Bill, allegedly, they're claiming that they knew about this a few months ago, the interview, they knew all this information a few months ago and they just kind of sat on, I don't understand. This is a big story and they just sat on it. It doesn't make any sense. Well, they sat on it because, of course, they know perfectly well that talking in this kind of way would horrify the German public and would horrify the European public. So they sat on it because it was embarrassing and it detracts from the cause of Ukraine, which built her husband. been an enthusiastic supporter of, probably also, and you know, let's be generous, they probably

didn't quite believe the story. They didn't quite believe that the Ukrainians did have this kind of capability. But the fact that the Ukrainians are talking in this way, even if they don't have that capability, is already an important thing that they absolutely, as you correctly say, should have communicated to the German public. A newspaper that has this kind of information and sits on it, I mean, I just don't understand that at all. But I think that's the reason that, you know, they knew that it would undermine support for Ukraine.

And so for that reason, they didn't want to reveal it. Well, now they've revealed it. And it was clearly timed to be revealed in this way, in order. to try to push decisions in the direction that Zelensky wanted. All right. My final question is two parts, actually. I want to talk about Trump, the fact that Zelensky has brought Trump into the discussion, which he did. He's now made Trump a part of this. Yeah. And he also talks about the Budapestha memorandum of 1990 war, which we have actually explained in past videos, but I think it's worth you explaining it again because he pushes the

narrative that Ukraine had nuclear weapons and Ukraine gave up those nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union had nuclear weapons and Russia as a successor state. You'll explain the Budapestrian memorandum. But he uses that allegedly in his discussions with Trump where he says, and I'm paraphrasing, where he says, you know, with the Budapest memorandum, all these countries, they got nuclear weapons, they got to keep their nuclear weapons. We didn't get to keep them. I'm paraphrasing what he said. We didn't get to keep them.

And now look what's happened to us. We were promised security guarantees. We didn't get those security guarantees. So, Mr. Trump, we're asking either NATO or we're going to look after our own security by putting together a nuclear weapon. That's basically what he said. Trump, and he claims that Trump agreed with his thinking. He said it was fair. I think those are the words he used. Trump said, yeah, that's fair. Is he throwing Trump under the bus here? He's bringing

Trump into this. Does Trump now have to respond to this? Is he obligated to respond to this? Because as we being fair, as we say, Bill sat on this for a couple of months. That's the way it looks at least, you can make the argument that Trump sat on this for a couple of weeks. He met with Zelensky about a month ago, and this is a person that could be president of the United States, and Zelensky is basically saying I told the frontrunner for president of the United States that if I don't get a tornado, I'm going to get nukes. I mean, Trump hasn't really mentioned anything about this. What do you make of everything I said as well as the Budapest memorandum, and we'll wrap up

the video? I think he probably did say all of these things to Trump. I have no doubt that he did. And I think by doing that, he put Trump in a very awkward and very difficult position. If you remember, they came out of that meeting, Trump looked strong, confident, cheerful. Zelensky looked absolutely furious. So I suspect that Zelensky is only giving us a very, very incomplete part of the discussion. suspect that, you know, Trump probably said something like, fair enough. He probably humoured the

madman, which is how it must have appeared to him. Zelensky was coming across and then made no commitments at all, because Zelensky is trying to insinuate that Trump went along with him. But I don't think if you really sit down and think, even about what Zelensky is saying, that that's how it looked It doesn't look like that to me at all. And I personally, if I was advising Trump, I would say, well, that's just Zelensky. You know, don't pay any attention to what he's saying. I would advise Trump. Just let this thing go.

Focus on the election instead. Don't let yourself get distracted into an argument with Zelensky of all people. That's my own view. I mean, the election is only, what, three weeks away. So I think that's probably the wisest thing for Trump to do now. But talking specifically about Trump, if Trump is elected, he now has proof of what an incredibly dangerous and manipulative individual Zelensky is. First of all, he, Trump has a, what he assumes is a private discussion.

with Zelensky. Zelensky comes out at that discussion a couple of weeks later. He spreads a story that he was talking about acquiring nuclear weapons and that Donald Trump agreed to it. I mean, as I said, I don't take that seriously, but that is what Zelensky is doing.

Trump has just been educated in what a dangerous man, Zelensky, is, and he has every right to be absolutely furious about it. He knows or should know now that you don't trust Zelensky an inch. And when you don't trust Zelensky an inch, don't listen to the stories he spins, which many other people are spinning about the Budapest memorandum and the nuclear weapons and all of that. Let's talk about the nuclear weapons first. Firstly, absolutely right.

they were not Ukraine's nuclear weapons. They were the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. When the Soviet Union broke up, most of the nuclear weapons were located inside what then became Russia, the Russian Federation. Some of them were in Ukraine. Others were in Belarus and Kazakhstan. I mean, just like, you know, people always ignore that.

But those two other countries were, also places where nuclear weapons were stationed. However, the military force that supervised and controlled the nuclear weapons by everyone's agreement and through the desire of the men who made up that nuclear force themselves, they were absolutely an elite within the Soviet army, remained united and loyal to Moscow. So it was Moscow always that had control of those nuclear weapons. For a time, some of them were located in on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which then became independent countries.

But countries which it is important to remember at that time were connected to Russia through what was then the Commonwealth of Independent States. You know, this ephemeral body that existed for a time, but which some people briefly thought might take the place of the Soviet Union. Anyway, the point is, Moscow always had control. And then after discussions between the Russians and the Americans, and the Americans did not want nuclear weapons lying around in all sorts of places where they might escape Moscow's control.

It was agreed that all of the nuclear weapons, the ones in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus would be brought back to Russia. And that was what happened. So the story that Ukraine ever possessed a nuclear arsenal is a completely false one. Now, as to the Budapest memorand, random. This is one of those documents that was created in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet

Union's collapse and at the end of the Cold War. And it was one of a whole series of agreements, a whole web of agreements that were reached at that time, all of which taken together appeared to bring to an end the Cold War. Now, a key agreement at that time was the promise made by NATO, never put down in writing, but repeated many times, that NATO would not expand eastwards. There were other promises, many other promises made in that time about restrictions of nuclear weapons, deployments of nuclear weapons in various places. The United States, for example, at that time was saying that NATO infrastructure, nuclear weapons, would never be based in Eastern Europe. Lots and lots of things were agreed at that time. Agreements not.

to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. That is, by the way, there in the Budapest memorandum. I mean, it is actually there as well. The U.S. and the U.K. not to interfere. I just want to the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.K. not to interfere. Absolutely. And Russia. Exactly. So that's all there in the Budapest memorandum. And the point was that the whole structure that was created at the end of the Cold War, then gradually began to fall apart. And I should add, one of the other key points that was made at the time the Budapest memorandum was agreed, was that of course Ukraine would remain an independent country, and the Russians were given the guarantee that Ukraine would remain an independent country

because that fact was enshrined in Ukraine's own constitution. Its constitution said that Ukraine would remain neutral. And then it all began to fall apart. NATO started to be moved eastwards. The United States and Britain did begin to interfere and interfere massively in the internal affairs of all the various countries covered by the Budapest memorandum. Ukraine specifically, they backed the Orange Revolution. They gave, was it, $250 million, to help,

helped, or was in a five billion dollars. I can't remember the exact thing. You know, five billion dollars exactly to carry out political change in Ukraine. They supported the Maidan coup. Ukraine was invited into NATO. I mean, it was invited to be more precise. It was invited at the Bucharest summit in 2008 to apply for NATO membership. It was, it was. It was invited. It was also persuaded to change its constitution. So instead of being a neutral country, it became a country which constitutionally committed itself to join NATO. So every part of this system, structure collapsed. And of course, in terms of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, Well, during the 2020 events in Belarus, the United States straightforwardly said through its embassy

that the provisions about non-interference in the internal affairs of countries covered by the Budapest Memorandum no longer applied. It no longer had any legal status and, you know, that was irrelevant. So the Budapest memorandum had, to all, intents and purposes, disintegrated by the time that the special military operation was launched. What Westerners want to do, what Zelensky-Col, want to do, is that they want to take one part of both of that memorandum, by the way, and of the whole system of agreements that was reached at the end of the Cold War, that part which suits them whilst ignoring all the other parts that don't. And you can't conduct international relations in that way.

Yeah, agreed. All right. We will end the video there. The durand.com. We are on Rumble, odyssey, pitch, you telegram, and Rotfin, and use the code October 20, get 20% off all of our t-shirts and all our merchandise, like what we are wearing today in this video. Take care.