The Duran Podcast - Putin's Advice to Trump; Ratcliffe's Ukraine Power Grab

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Putin's Advice to Trump; Ratcliffe's Ukraine Power Grab

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening with Project Ukraine. Shall we begin with the military situation, or do you want to talk a bit about the diplomacy, the Trump-Putin phone call, the Financial Times article claiming that Ratcliffe is now going to take over the diplomacy part of Project Ukraine, even though he can't get a meeting with Putin or Lavrov. But we also have a drone incident with Zelenskyy flying from. from Moldova to Norway, where the drone was 160 kilometers away, but they're making a big fuss about this. Zero danger for Zelensky, by the way, but obviously they're doing this so that they can highlight the air defense situation and get more weapons and get more money and stuff like that.

Anyway, where do you want to begin? I'm going to begin with a military situation, though I'm going to try and keep it as as short as I can. But it's important always to say that what's driving everything, all the events that we're going to be talking about, the very strange events we're going to be talking about, is the military situation. And in every respect, it is deteriorating fast for Ukraine. The Russians, and you discussed this in a program he did some days ago, they're now bombing, not sending missiles, not sending drones. They're bombing the Black Sea ports and they're bombing the logistical facilities in southwest Ukraine, which are enormous. I mean, this is a major military area for the Soviet Union.

So there are lots of depots, warehouses, places where oil and weapons can be stored and stockpiled. And this was basically Ukraine's armory. This is where they kept a lot of their weapons. Now they're being bombed and bombed with fab bombs, and it is devastating, and it is causing massive amounts of destruction, and it's creating a fuel shortage in Ukraine. You know, they talk about the fuel shortage in Russia all the time, that there is now an increasing fuel shortage in Ukraine, and the military are saying that they're running out of fuel, that they have problems with fuel. and they continue, they've now returned to round the clock missile and drone strikes on Kiev. Those continue just as they did before Whitkoff and Kushner came to Moscow. There was a three-day pause. That three-day pause has ended.

The missile drone strikes on Kiev have resumed. As you rightly said just now, there is no air defence to speak of. So all of this pounding or the strikes continue around the clock all the time, night and day in the southwest of Ukraine on the front lines in Kiev, in many other places of Ukraine as well. And that continues. Ukrainian officials are now saying that the Rasvet satellite system works for one and a half hours across the whole territory of Ukraine. but they only need seven more satellites, seven, for it to be able to cover Ukraine, all of Ukraine, 24-7. I don't know whether that is true, but that is what they are saying. And we are now seeing drone strikes take place in Western Ukraine as well, so far not on a massive scale.

but it could be, we have to use the word could be. I think it probably is that these are test attacks with long-range drones, you taking obtaining signals via the Rassvet system, we shall see. And on the front lines, last night, the night before we make this program, Redolfka, which is a big newspaper in Russia with lots of contacts, within the Russian military. I mean, real context within the Russian military, not like many of the telegram channels have.

They're saying that the Ukrainian army is pulling out of Oreckhoff, that the forces there are escaping north to evade, to avoid total encirclement. There's some suggestions that some of the troops are disobeying orders to stand, to stand and fight, so that Oreckhoff itself could be cleared within the next few days or even hours. We'll have to keep an eye on this, but I have repeatedly found Radovka's reports to be very reliable.

And yesterday, the Russian Defence Ministry itself said that Russian troops have entered the town of Drusivka, which lies south of Kramatosk. The Russians are already fighting for another town to the south of Drushivka, called Alexeyev-Drujivka, but it looks as if both of these places are now being stormed. And there are reports that the Russians have encircled a group of Ukrainian troops in northeastern Ukraine, Khadakhav region, nobody disputes this, everybody accepts that this is happening, even Ukrainian commentators accept that this is happening. Not a large force, but it looks as if in northern Ukraine, in Sumi and Kharkov region, things are going from bad to worse for Ukraine as well.

The only mystery, and it is a mystery, is what is happening north of Lehman. There are lots of reports and rumors and speculations in various parts of the internet that there's been some kind of big Ukrainian counter-offensive there and the Ukrainians have recovered a lot of ground. But so far, there has been no video footage that confirms this and no statement about it that I'm aware of from any Ukrainian official, which makes me doubt that this is actually so. There's been lots of stories many times about Ukrainian offensives and very very, very often they've turned out to be mostly media constructs. But it's something we obviously need to stay aware of. But everywhere else on the front lines, things are going bad. Things are very,

very bad in the war in the sky. And the financial situation is getting worse and worse. The budget deficit is widening. The economy is collapsing. Tax revenue is collapsing. Ukraine collected only half of what it usually collects in tax. Last month, this month, it's going to be lower than that. So, altogether, things are very bad indeed. Zelensky is asking the Europeans for more money. He wants more air defense missiles. The winter situation is very, very difficult. The situation going forward for the winter looks very, very difficult. And I would think This is the greatest crisis that Ukraine has faced in the war up to now by far. Yeah.

Ukraine is doomed. I don't see how they're going to come out of this. I mean, maybe they squeak through the winter. Yes. Maybe. And that seems to be the goal of the collective west right now is let's just try to figure out a way to get through the winter. But after the winter, what are they going to do after that? The New York Times is running a report saying that,

that the Europeans are asking Zelensky, where did the $27 billion that we gave you go? Or why are you asking for another $27 billion? I can answer that. I can answer that question. We know that. We all know that, yeah. We've been covering that for a while. And the Europeans know where that $27 billion went.

They know very well where all the money went or why he's asking for another $27 billion, whatever. They're running articles now talking about the vanishing money. okay, as if you guys didn't know. But the one question mark is Leman. And there are people talking about analysts and the mappers talking about some sort of breakthrough. But how important, if this was to be the case, how important is that in the big picture of things when every other area is collapsing?

And you have these forces concentrated in Leman and Ukraine has done this in the past. mostly for media and PR purposes where they concentrate a lot of forces in one area. They get that breakthrough. Zelensky then travels to London or to Paris. He's going to be in the United States on the 20th. And he focuses in on that one area. And then he makes his pitch for money and weapons because Ukraine is advancing. Meanwhile, everything else is collapsing.

Yes. Is that what's going on? That is exactly. That is indeed what is happening. And as I said, we don't have a huge amount of information about this. A lot of rumors, a lot of talk. Some of the mappers are going along with this. But if it is happening, we've seen this play out many times before, just as you said, the Ukrainians mount an offensive. They claim that the initiative is with them. They give us all sorts of pictures and stories, and we have Ukrainian soldiers raising flags, and then the whole thing runs out of steam, which it must, because Ukraine's military is dwindling in size, and its ability

to sustain offensives is declining, and then the Russians come back and regain control fairly quickly and fairly easily of whatever territory they've lost. Exactly that is happening now in Zaporosia region, by the way. In western Zaporosia region, south of the city of Zaporosia, the Ukrainians conducted a counterattack earlier in the spring and summer of this year. They pushed the Russians out of places like a village called Primoski, another village called Plavny. They reached a small town called Stetsnogorsk. There was a lot of excitement about this in the West. they weren't able to sustain the offensive. The Russians are now advancing in that very same area again,

and they're taking it all back, and apparently not against very little opposition. So it won't mean anything. These are, as you absolutely rightly said, theatrical PR offensives. The Russians play along with them sometimes because going on the offensive results in more Ukraine. soldiers being killed, more ammunition being used up. It actually, they actually weaken the

Ukrainian army overall. They strengthen in the end the Russian position. And if there is this offensive taking place, that is exactly what this will amount to. I would say the Russians play along with it most of the times because what happens usually is as Ukraine pushes in their offensive, Russia annihilates the Ukraine advance in the Ukraine military, and they suffer huge losses. We saw this play out many times. Many, many times in Herzog, in Kharkov, constantly the same scenario over and over again. But Zelensky does successfully get his money from it. Yes, he does. He does. And the other thing to say, of course, just as quickly add, is that, of course, precisely because the Ukrainians have to concentrate what is,

ever spare forces they have in this one area to conduct the offensive. Other places are weakened, which is probably while you're seeing places like Drusivka, the Russians enter Drusivka, the Russians capturing Orrhoff. These are more important places, by the way, than these places in the north that we're talking about. But you're absolutely right. For Zelensky's point of view, his priority always, by the way, you've been saying this since before the war, even began. His priority is to keep the money moving. So if he loses Orecko, and he loses Drusivka, but he gets $27 billion, or even more, because he's almost certainly going to ask for a lot more, well, for him, that is a good trade. Well, he is asking for a lot.

He is $27 billion is just the defense money. He wants another $36 billion. for his own government. By the way, the New York Times article, just to read you the title, is Ukraine says it needs $27 billion more. Europe wants to know why. So that's the title. All they need to do is listen to our programs. They don't need to send auditors or people like that.

They don't want to send auditors. They don't want to send the U.S. doesn't want to send auditors. The Europeans don't want to send auditors. Because if they did send auditors, then everyone would. know where the money's going. Exactly. Everyone will know. And then that's the one thing that the collective West does not want to reveal.

Exactly. Exactly. Anyway, let's talk about the Putin Trump phone call. Yeah. Number one. Let's talk about this Financial Times Radcliffe article. Once again, Radcliffe pushing out Whitkoff and Kushner, but Radcliffe can't even get a meeting with Putin or Lavrov. So how exactly is that negotiation goes? going to work. And finally, Alexander, comment on the UK Spectator article that dropped three

days ago with the title, Ukraine is losing. I think that was the exact title. Ukraine is losing the war. I mean, just right there, Ukraine is losing the war. Yes, absolutely. And of course, the spectator, just to explain to people, is the magazine that the entire political elite in London reads. It is read by everybody, everybody who is involved in politics, all the MPs. Wasn't Boris Johnson involved in it?

Boris Johnson was his editor for many years. I mean, you know, he was heavily involved in it. And so, I mean, that gives you an idea of its importance. It has always been politically aligned with a Conservative Party. But Labour Party people read it. Because by the way, just to say, for most of its history, it's been a very good magazine, whatever your political positions, about politics and about things of that kind. And at the present time, today, it is the only readable, political, current affairs magazine in Britain.

All of the others are basically, I mean, you could just forget them. They're just nonsense. But the spectator does sometimes have solidarity. articles. Now, this article was written by a journalist called Owen Matthews, who is perhaps the one realist left. Let me put it like this. He is a journalist who obviously supports Ukraine. Lowe's Russia repeats all the usual stories that you hear about Putin. He writes, he's not in any conceivable way sympathetic to the Russians. He's always been more supportive of Ukraine. But he is the journalist, he's the reporter who is wheeled out whenever the bad news comes.

And he is the person who writes these articles and they appear in the spectator and they appear in the Daily Telegraph. It's a shock when they appear to the various, many of the readers. But the one in the spectator is the more important one because the Daily Telegraph basically right-wing people read. The spectator is the magazine which everyone in politics reads. So it's different. And it said exactly what you said. It says Ukraine is losing the war. That was the title.

And you go through the article and you see there all of the things that we have been saying. And even the points about the emerging financial crisis in Ukraine, the fact that the economy is imploding under the, following the blockade and the bombing and the missile strikes from the sky. And he doesn't actually talk about hyperinflation. He doesn't want to do that. Nobody in the media wants to talk about the possibility of hyperinflation in Ukraine. But you could see that the worry about it just under the surface is there.

By the way, just to say, throwing more. euros and dollars at Ukraine probably would be enough to stop a hyperinflation spiral getting out of control. But hyperinflation is one kind of inflation. Another type of inflation is when there is too much money, too much real money, chasing too few goods. That forces the price of goods up, giving Ukraine $60 billion, let's say. Let's say that's the amount they get over the next few weeks, months. Even if only $6 billion of that stays in Ukraine, that's still going to increase inflationary pressures in Ukraine in an economy which is neither able to produce goods nor import them. So just to explain that to people. It won't be hyperinflation, but it will be

inflation which will be affected, affecting the people, and it will be affecting the soldiers who get paid very low salaries, which are going to start losing value. All right. Should we wrap up the video by talking about the Putin-Trump phone call? The significance of that call and then just talk about Ratcliffe and all of that, the Financial Times. Yeah, well. Running this story. Right. Well, the Putin, right.

So I think, as I said, it's very simple. What has happened in the diplomacy overall, we've discussed this already. Ukraine is losing. It's losing big. The Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about this. If there is any government in the West that probably has some understanding, the best understanding of how bad things are, it probably is the Americans. The Americans are trying to persuade the Russians to stop.

So they sent Radcliffe to Moscow, and Ratcliffe came, as we discussed, with threats. The Russians were furious, apparently. There's some reports that the Russians weren't happy at all about the way in which Radcliffe addressed them when he came to Moscow. He only stayed there for a few hours. He was sent on his way. He didn't meet Lavrov or Putin. We'll come to that in a moment. So the threats didn't work. So now we try the bribes. Wittgoth and Kushner go to Moscow. They obviously have no new ideas. think that has become absolutely clear now. They meet with Putin because they are Trump's personal invoice. And as we've discussed in many places, Trump, Putin for some reason, still

wants to maintain a relationship with Trump. It irritates many people. It irritates Medvedev, who's given a very interesting interview to the Russian newspaper, Viedermosti, which we can discuss some other time. But anyway, Putin doesn't send them away. They meet with him. They meet with him in the Kremlin. They now offer the bribes. Massive economic contacts. By the way, Bessent did the same thing at the G20 finance minister's meeting. He said exactly the same thing to the Russian finance minister Siluanov. All you have to do is end the war. We will lift all the sanctions. enormous economic prospects will then open up. And of course, the sub-message is that you will all become rich. You Putin, you, Dimitri, all of you will become very, very rich if this happens.

I mean, I think we need to understand that that sub-message is always there. Putin said no. I mean, he said no. He went through the whole military situation, which apparently took up. most of the meeting. And he wasn't interested. So Whitkoff and Kushner then go to Kiev. They go to Kiev empty-handed. In fact, Putin is supposed to have hardened his demands. I'm not sure he really has hardened his demands. I think he's sticking to his demands. Let's put it that way. I think he will pardon his demands, but he hasn't announced it yet. But anyway, he goes to Kiev empty-handed. Zelensky anyway says that he's not prepared to accept Putin's demands. With Goff and Kushner go back to the United States. They report to Trump. Trump telephones Putin. And he tries this all over

again. If you go to Ushakov's readout, it's the same story. Much of what Trump was saying was Why don't we end the war now? Let's end the war. All sorts of wonderful economic prospects will then open up. And Putin says it's important to stick to the root causes. And this is the real military situation on the battlefronts. So Putin basically again says no. He does this very politely, he wants to maintain a relationship with Trump. I am increasingly thinking that he wants to do that because he wants to manage. He hopes that Trump can manage the Europeans in some way. Well, we'll see whether that works out. But the fact remains, the Americans tried both the threats and the bribes, and it didn't work. That's what has happened in the Diplomers.

Now we have this Financial Times article. The Financial Times article, it is being strongly denied in Washington. It has been partially denied in Moscow. I think it contains elements of truth. Firstly, it confirms what we have been saying, that Ratcliffe went to Moscow on a diplomatic mission. He didn't just go there to exchange. intelligence tips with the Russian intelligence chiefs, you know, Bordnikov and Naryshkin. It was a diplomatic contact. It also says, we also told now, that Putin refused to meet Radcliffe,

that Ratcliffe, in other words, wanted to meet Putin, and Putin refused to meet him. Here is what I think is taking place. Radcliffe is telling Trump, you see, the bribes failed. They are not listening to Wit Gough and Kushner in Moscow. Bribes don't work. You need someone hard and tough to take over. Put me in charge. make me the chief negotiator, in that case, Putin will have to meet me, and I can make my threats

to Putin directly. I won't have to go through Portnikov and Naryshkin, as I did when I went to Moscow. So there is now a battle, in other words, underway within the Trump administration, with the hardliners, people like Ratcliffe trying to get Trump to put Ratcliffe in overall charge of the diplomacy as he already is of the war in order to escalate the war using that in order to get the Russians to stop. That is my take of the Financial Times article. What a waste of time for the Trump administration for the U.S. Just walk away from the freaking thing. Just what a waste of freaking time.

Trump bailed out Biden. He bailed out Sullivan. He bailed out Blinking. He bailed out Obama. He bailed out all these guys. And he has taken full ownership of this conflict. And now he's running around trying to figure out, should I have Kushner or Whitkoff or pass it off to Ratcliffe. And Ratcliffe is, as you say, he's going to be the guy that goes in there and issues threats. Exactly. Right. The dirty war, the covert war and threats. Why should put to meet with Ratcliffe if Ratcliffe's the chief negotiator? Well, I know. Exactly. Can I just, by the way, say something about the fact that we've been saying all along all the way back to August 2024, we first started saying it then that the right policy for Donald Trump was to walk away. If you listen carefully to Ushakov, Ushikov being Putin's foreign policy aid, and he was in there with him in the meeting, both with Witkoff and Kushner, and he was listening. in on the call between Putin and Trump. Uschukov has now said that Putin, well, he hasn't exactly said, but he's made it clear that over the course of the telephone conversation between Putin and Trump, Putin gave Trump the same advice. He said to Trump, look, if you really want to bring this war to an end, it's very simple. Stop helping Ukraine. That is apparently what happened over the course of that call. And it is important, but that was Putin's advice to Trump. Well, you can imagine if Putin really said that to Trump, as I believe he did.

In fact, I'm sure he did, how that is going to ring alarm bells all over Washington and is going to make people like Radcliffe absolutely furious. Last thing he wants is Trump, not that it's ever going to happen, but the last thing he wants is Trump shutting down his operation. So he's going to be even more urgent and pressing towards Trump, telling him, forget Kushner, forget, Whitgoth, forget all these bribes, put me in charge, give me complete freedom to attack the Russians in any way I can, every way I can.

That's the way to get the Russians to stop. Bribes won't cut it. Ratcliffe is nowhere near the same caliber, the same category as Putin. He is zero match for Putin. Cliff, zero match. I've watched Radcliffe. I've listened to his testimony. He is not up for this job at all. Absolutely. Better to stick with Whitkoff and Kushner. Honestly, better to stick. At least they're polite and at least they show respect. They use diplomacy. At least you could say that about them. Absolutely right. And with the Russians, by the way, that is incredibly important. I mean, the Russians like when people talk to them, they expect to be treated respectfully and

They do not take well to being threatened and all of that and the way that Radcliffe does. By the way, just to quickly say, going back to Zelensky, Zelensky is now, of course, flying to Europe. He's going to be going to the United States. He's going to attend the New York UN General Assembly session. He's going to try and meet Trump there. He's going to try and get commitments for more patriot missile interceptors. they don't exist.

They just do not. He must know this. He must know that these weapons don't exist. He's also, I mean, I'm going to say it, I think he's confecting stories, like that he's plane flying over Moldova was almost going to be shot down by a Russian drone. I mean, that's a fantastic story in my opinion. It was confirmed. Confirmed. The drone was 160 kilometers away from his plane. It's been confirmed. Exactly. That would place the drone not even in Moldova Alexander. It wasn't even in Moldova. Exactly. But that's what he's saying. He's still, he's the heroic figure that we must help. But you can already see what's happening. So, so, Ursula has now said that the Ukrainians are going to be given extra funding to buy Patriot.

missile parts. So they're not going to be given patriot missiles. What Zelensky is going to come and say to Trump is, you can't give me missiles. Give me money instead. I will buy the parts. I will put all these missiles together. I will do all of this. It's money that he's after now, not missiles.

He knows the missiles aren't there. What a giant grift, giant rug pull that this is going to turn out to be. Absolutely. Unfortunately, it's going to be the people that are going to suffer. But we're looking at a gigantic rug pull. You know, just a final note, you can tell that Trump is concerned about Project Ukraine, very concerned because I believe in the readout, there was a section from Ushikov's statement where he said that Trump would like to resolve Ukraine in his term

before his presidency's up. Trump's big fear is that this is going to be 100 times worse than Afghanistan was for Biden. And he's trying to avoid that. You're completely right. That is what is driving Trump. Now, again, he's right to be concerned about this. But who's to blame for this? Donald Trump is.

He'd done what... I mean, we said it. We were the first people to say. I'm going to say straightforwardly, other people picked it up. Steve Bannon, for example. Other people picked it up. They told Trump, walk away. But instead, he listened to people like Keith Kellogg and others and see where he, and look

now where he is. He's now worried. He's right to be worried. But I think he's trapped. Yeah, agreed. All right. We will end the video there. Look for us on Substack.

Look for us on Lod. locals, the durand.locals, the durand.com, and go to the Durand shop pick up some merch. Those things are the description box down below. Take care.