The Duran Podcast - Russia advances. Media ignores military reality

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Russia advances. Media ignores military reality

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the military situation in Ukraine because we do have all these negotiations allegedly going on. This circus of a scenario in Istanbul playing out in Istanbul. But at the end of the day, as you have always said, as we have said on the Duran Channel, it is the situation on the ground, the front lines, the military situation that will drive and dictate what's going to happen. in Ukraine. And the collective West media and even some of the mapping channels that were very close to Ukraine have started to delay or pause or just outright stop the coverage of what is happening on the ground. And they're doing that because the Russian advances are getting greater and greater with each passing day. More and more villages are being captured.

The Russians are moving across five fronts now, four, five, six fronts. And the Ukraine military is looking like is coming very close to a collapse, especially in inserted fronts like in the Donetska front towards Bakrowski, towards that area. And we are seeing the Russian army. approach key cities, cities, towns like Slaviansk, Kramatorsk. Your thoughts on what's going on? You are absolutely correct. And you are absolutely correct about a certain point that the mapping channels met some

of them are not reporting events. Deep State, which is the Ukrainian one, is becoming increasingly slow in doing so, though they do sometimes make some very important admissions. The media in Britain has basically stopped doing so. I mean, I haven't seen military updates being provided for about three weeks now, really detailed military updates such as we used to get. And the reason is very simple. There is a military crisis developing. And it's no longer quite as slow motion as it used to be. It reminds me, the situation today reminds me very much. of this situation that we saw this time last year. If you remember, this time last year, we were some weeks from the fall of Avdewka, which had taken place in February, 2024. And then the Russians advanced. They captured a place called Orchiretino in March, and then there was the first signs that there was a breakthrough,

beginning to develop. And that breakthrough brought the Russians all the way to the outsk of Pakrosk, and they captured Salidovo, Kurachovov, and the important fortified town of Uglidar. Now, what we're seeing this time is like that, but on a bigger scale, a much bigger scale. And it's happening not just in one theatre, not just in the theatre, basically west of Avdyevka towards Pakrosk and the Nipa.

It is happening everywhere. In every part of the front line, the Russians are advancing and they're advancing faster and faster and the Ukrainian forces are buckling. They are unable to hold the Russians back in any place. And the reports, when he's getting, is that they're desperately over-extended, that they're short of men, that they are, that they are becoming, they're running short now again of artillery shells. There's been this enormous propaganda over the last couple of months that, you know, the drones have changed the entire contour of the baffle, that the drones by themselves are enough to prevent the Russian advance. I think we're seeing that story, which is another narrative, by the way.

I mean, I've been saying this for a while. It is another narrative. That particular narrative is again becoming exposed. And we're seeing what kinds of things happen? So if I could just go from the south to the north, if you like, in the south, the Russians since taking Ugledar and Velika and Novo Silka, in the late autumn and winter. They've now resumed their advance.

They've captured an entire fortified area west of these places and north of these places. They're on the brink of capturing an important fortified village. And when I say a village, this is more like a small town called Bagatir. This was expected to be a long battle, but it looks as that Bagatir is going to fall within days. And this is, by the way, a pattern now, places that looked heavily fortified and which once upon a time in the war would have taken months for the Russians to capture. They're now capturing in days, not months or even weeks. Anyway, Bagatea looks about to fall. The Russians have been pressing westwards somewhat further north in this area, and they are now outflanking.

Pakrosk from the west. They are far to the west of Pakrovsk in the area south of Pakrovsk, and they're ready to cut the supply lines from the west to Pakrovsk. They've captured a whole string of fortified positions to the east and north of Pakrosk itself. Pachrosk looks like it's probably days or at the most weeks from encirclement. And Pachrosk looks like it's probably days, or at the most weeks, from encirclement. And Pachrosk is the key logistics hub. It was the area, the town through which Ukraine kept its forces in Dombas supplied. So already the supply lines from Pachrosk to central Dombas have already been cut.

But of course, if Pachosk itself falls, which it will soon, then of course not only is that supply hub lost to Ukraine. But Ukraine has also, the Russians have also captured a major fortified position which releases their forces so that they can advance even more quickly towards the Dnieper. And the Russians are advancing in other places too. So there's the other major urban area, which the Ukrainians still hold in Dombas, which is the area of the four, of the three towns, Slaviansk, Kramatosk and Konstantinovka. The Ukrainian positions, both at the south and of the north of this big urban conurbation, are collapsing. The Russians are clearing the Ukrainians rapidly from all the positions in the southern area close to the town of Konstantinovka.

Yesterday, we got what looks like conclusive confirmation that the Russians have now captured the main part, 90% of the key town of Chasafyar, which the Ukrainians have been trying to hold on to and have sacrificed huge numbers of men to try to hold onto, because it is on a hill and overlooks all of these places. And in the north, further north, close to Slaviansk, the Russians look like they're about to break through and capture another place called Leman, which they held for a few weeks in 2022,

which puts them in the same kind of position to overlook Slaviansk. So the northern part of this conurbation, Slaviansk-Amatos-Konstantinivka looks threatened as well. And further north still, the Russians look like they're expanding their positions in Kharkov, in the area around Kharkov. It looks like they've essentially captured the town of Volchansk, which was bitterly fought over. As we know, they drove the Ukrainians out of Kusk region.

The Ukrainians made another attempt to break into Kusk region over the last couple of weeks, which failed disastrously. and it looks like the Russians are about to capture, or at least are coming close to capturing, a key village in Sumi region called Yunakufka, which potentially could open the way to the city of Sumi, which lies on the main road to Kiev itself. So you could see that this whole line, this whole Ukrainian line, is starting to buckle. The Ukrainian is short of men, short of artillery, short of shells, perhaps become over-dependent on drones, even in the area of drones now. However, the Russians have apparently a five-to-one advantage. Which is why they need a pause.

Which is why they need a force. A freeze. Exactly. Yeah, they need a freeze very, very bad. What do you make of Kellogg's statements that after a freeze, if they were to get a freeze, then you would be looking at European forces in the West. Does Kellogg, does his team understand that Ukraine in the East is about to collapse and basically they want to try to secure some of the Western parts? Well, probably. I'm sure that is partly the thinking. I think there may be some element of that.

I think also, and this is. is what I think Kellogg and the neocons are saying to themselves is, look, even if we lose eastern Ukraine, which they're hoping still, I think, to avoid that. I mean, Kellogg talks about a freeze which will preserve Ukrainian control of large stretches of eastern Ukraine. I mean, Kharkov, Sumi are still under Ukrainian control. Zaporosia city, still under Ukrainian control. Slavians, Kramatosk, Prakosk, still under Ukrainian control. So they're hoping that they can freeze the situation before that happens. But if they lose eastern Ukraine, they still hope maybe to send troops into Western Ukraine.

And the idea, I think, ultimately, is to work towards getting Western Ukraine, what's left to Ukraine into NATO. You have NATO troops there, you establish NATO bases there, you eventually get Ukraine into NATO, you then get your naval base in Odessa, you get a presence in the Black Sea, which is what the NACON strategy has always been. The Russians, of course, opposed this. They made it absolutely clear that for them, the entry of European troops, NATO troops, into Ukraine, is completely unacceptable. And as far as the Russians are concerned, it's a deal breaker. What do you think is happening on the northeast border of Hungary, where two drones were shot,

down by the Hungarian military and Orban actually convened a meeting of his defense team, his defense counsel. What do you think is happening there? It's an excellent question. I mean, you would have thought that with this crisis developing in eastern Ukraine, the last thing Ukraine would want to do is to start a conflict with Hungary. And, you know, we were in Hungary a few months ago and Hungary has armed forces, strong armed forces. I mean, they may not be the biggest in Europe, but I mean, I'm sure that the Hungarians, if they were pressed, would give a good account of themselves. So why exactly is Zelensky doing this? Well, I get the sense that here Zelensky carries out whatever orders he's given by Brussels.

The EU centre wants to break Hungary. They've come up with an elaborate plan to try to circumvent any Hungarian sanctions or any kind of Hungarian VATs. of further sanctions. So they want to break Hungary. They want to break Orban. They want to break FISA. And I think that this is an attempt to create additional pressure on Hungary by involving Hungary in some kind of conflict with Ukraine, saying that Hungary is aligning itself with Russia and is acting aggressively against Ukraine. Because remember, whatever fighting goes on on Hungary Eastern border, it will inevitably be packaged and presented and spun as Hungarian aggression against Ukraine, not the other way around. And they will use that as a justification to suspend

Hungary's EU membership, which will mean, of course, that Hungary will not be in a position to exercise its veto. It's incredibly dangerous gang. Yeah, it's incredible that the European Union is going out. their own member state and supporting a country that is not even a member of the union. It's astonishing. Well, it shows how utterly demented this whole thing has become. We are long past the point when rationality in European policy went out of the window. Going all the way back to the time of the European Union's association agreement, you know,

agreement with Ukraine, which you remember was being talked about in 2012, 2013. I remember all sorts of people say, you know, Ukraine is really important to Russia. Ukraine is a very, very divided society. The EU should be treading carefully here. We've never paid any attention. Does it meet any of the financial? Fiscal requirement, not even close, any of them. Exactly.

That also carries it forward for Moldova, for Georgia, Armenia, all the fiscal requirements. these countries that the European Union talks about getting into the Union, none of them meet the criteria. None. Zero. Absolutely. But you know, they're approaching the European Union. They are obsessed with this project. Because what is driving them is their hatred of Russian and Putin. When people lose, give themselves over to hatred and anger, they stop behaving in all kinds of weird ways. I've seen this happen many times, by the way. And this is what you're seeing now. So the talks that are trying to take place in Istanbul, all these negotiations that have been

going on over the past couple of months, the way I'm looking at it is that these next few weeks, this is really the last chance for Ukraine. This is their last chance that Putin is giving them. Actually, this is the last chance that Europe has, that NATO has, and that the United States has. This is Putin's offer. June 2024, Istanbul Plus, this is our offer. Take it, or else something in the next month or two, beginning of summer, middle of summer. The big offensive is going to start happening, and then it's going to be game over. Yes. Putin has been using very, very, uncharacteristic for him language recently. Firstly, I pointed out, and again, I'm surprised that fewer people have mentioned this, the fact that he used the word war over the course of

his speech on Saturday, the one where he said that he would be sending a negotiating team to Istanbul on Thursday. And of course, he said something else. recently, which has attracted a lot more attention, which is that he's called the European leaders. And basically, he was meaning the European leaders. He called them idiots. He said that they are trying to impose more sanctions on themselves, because that's ultimately what they're going to do. It is irrational, but what can you expect of these people? So he is, I think, very, very close now. I'm really close to the final end of his patience. He feels that he's got all the cards in his hands.

The military cards, he's got a strong relationship with China. He had 29 heads of state turning up for the celebrations in Moscow. The economy is stable. Inflation is coming down, according to what most people in the West are. Or some people, you know, the commentary at in the West, is saying the Russians are expecting growth this year and it looks like it's going to be higher growth again

than what they had been expecting at the same. start of the year, and Putin is confident that they can sail through any further sanctions that the Europeans impose. So if they don't do this deal, now on the basis of Istanbul Plus, then sometime in the summer when the Russian breakthrough comes, I think Putin will probably upgrade the special military operation. He's not far from doing that. The Russians have been making complaints about some of the actions that the Ukrainians have been taking. The fact that civilians captured in Kusk had been held being used as bargaining chips. That's what the Russians say.

I mean, that's what the Russians are saying. So I can very easily see. Putin finally saying in the summer, enough enough, I've given these idiots, this is now calling them, every opportunity to make peace. I gave them a big final off ramp during the Victory Day celebrations. The point has now come when we upgrade it, call it if not maybe a war, something that is stronger than a special military operation. And at that point, we just go ahead and work to achieve victory. And that means ending the regime in Kiev. there the duran dot locals.com we are on rumble odyssey bitchy telegram rock for the next go to the durand 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