The Duran Podcast - Russia Begins To Isolate Kiev. Elites Rattled as Rail Link Hit

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Russia Begins To Isolate Kiev. Elites Rattled as Rail Link Hit

Arad Alexander, let's talk about what is happening with Project Ukraine and an interesting statement from President Trump as he was in Ireland on a golfing trip, I guess you could say. He was asked about the diesel shortages and the price of diesel, which has now climbed to over $6 and rising. The price of oil is also over 109, I believe. So that's also rising. Anyway, Trump was asked about diesel, and he blamed it all on Zelensky. He said Zelensky should just stop going after the Russian oil refineries.

He's to blame for the price of diesel. Many articles from 2025 from the Wall Street Journal, from NBC News, from the New York Times, which talk about how Trump greenlit the strikes. Russian oil refineries. He greenlit the strikes on Russian oil refineries. And now he's blaming it all on Zelensky. If Trump wanted to solve the diesel oil shortage, he would just make a call to the Pentagon or to the CIA and problem solved.

Right. So what's going on here? Why is Trump blaming this all on Zelensky? Obviously, he doesn't want to blame it on his Iran policy. Exactly. But what are your thoughts? Well, I think you've identified the immediate problem for Trump, which is that energy prices are rising. Diesel prices are rising.

The price of diesel is very important because the economy works on diesel. I mean, one shouldn't discount the importance of gasoline, but gasoline goes into passenger cars. Diesel goes into commercial vehicles, agricultural vehicles, ships. ships work on diesel oil. So it's absolutely their integral part of a modern industrial economy. And if diesel prices rise, then that puts upward pressure on all other prices. I read somewhere that the cost of food is directly affected, well, obviously it is directly affected by the price of diesel, but about a third of the price, the cost of food in the United States, is anywhere accounted for the price that farmers and agricultural producers pay for their diesel.

So it's inevitably going to have an inflation, create inflation pressure. But I think it goes beyond this. I don't think it's just about the fact that Trump looks, wants to find someone to blame for the rising. price of energy. I think he's had it up to there with Zelensky. I mean, he's played along with Zelensky to an extraordinary degree over the last year. You remember they had the enormous bust up in the Oval Office in February of last year. Then Trump let himself be talked by Radcliffe, Kellogg, Walsh, all of these people within his own administration.

that, you know, the Russians were bad, the Ukrainians were good, the way to win this war, the way for Trump to become the great president and to force the Russians to accept a ceasefire was to unleash this huge drone war, missile war against Russia. I believe that was already in preparation from before Trump became president. I think that the decision to go for deep strikes inside Russia was made as far back as the autumn of 2023, a Victoria Mooland talked about it. Then there'd been the defeat of Ukraine's summer 2023 counter-offensive. I remember they were talking at that time about creating an impenetrable line of fortifications which the Russians would not be able to break through and transitioning to. to a process of deep strikes against Russia.

And if you know anything about industrial processes, you would know that getting a big drone missile operation up and running and going would probably take about a year or two to set up. And that brings us directly to the spring of 2025. So along comes Trump. He has this bust up with Zelensky. He's then talked around. He's told Zelensky's actually a good thing.

He's told, look, we've got this plan, we've got all this work that's already been done. It's going to deliver us and you specifically victory. All you need to do is to give Zelensky and the Ukrainians the green light to launch this big drone missile offensive. We've had the articles about this in the New York Times and all of the rest. We know that there was a telephone conversation in, I think it was May or June 2025, in which Trump actually egged on Zelensky to conduct strikes against Russia. Why aren't you, if you're complaining to me about Russian strikes on Kiev, why aren't you conducting similar strikes against Moscow?

So he gave the green light and we now see that it has failed disastrously. we have not seen the Russian economy implode. In fact, we've had more economic numbers from Russia. Over the last few weeks and last few days, in fact, Nebula at the central bank chair has provided a big overview of the state of the Russian economy. There's been continued growth in the third quarter, so there's been no recession, there's been no economic contraction. inflation has been higher.

I'm not going to discuss the Russian economy in this program. I believe inflation has been higher because the central bank has eased on its anti-inflation monetary policy in order to ensure growth. This is a topic for another day. But anyway, there has not been a big contraction. There's not been a big fall in living standards. There's no sign that Putin's political position in Russia is collapsing. And instead, what we get is the Russians on the offensive.

Massive missile, drone attacks across Russia, across Ukraine by the Russians. The Russians are blockaded and closed down the Black Sea ports, as we have discussed in program after program. Kiev has been hammered. And now we've had two further developments, which must be feeding through. to Trump. Firstly, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, has just been to Ukraine. He is appalled by what he sees there. He writes about this in the Washington Post. He's one of the key figures in setting up the whole drone offensive against Russia. Do you admit that, by the way, in this same article? He says that he's never been more depressed. He talks about arriving in Kiev, about the Russian ballistic

missiles pouring in about the ground shaking, the railway station where he was, where he arrives shaking. He says that the Russians have scaled up drone production to levels unimaginable, obviously to him. And he says, Orbert says, that Ukraine is losing the war and that if things continue the way they are, it will lose the war. And we now have also various Ukrainian officials, not the very top officials, but military people, intelligence people, people who are close to the front lines. And I've noticed that over the last couple of days, there's been a trickle of them also coming out and saying, Ukraine is losing the war. So things are turning increasingly bad. And this perhaps hasn't quite reached Trump yet. But what?

We also see something else beginning to happen, which is that the Russians are attacking the railway connection between Kiev and Poland, the one that all of the Western officials used. We had an attack by the Russians on some kind of building close to the railway station about a week ago. We've had Eric Schmidt's own account of how the entire railway station was shaking. because of big Russian missile strikes on Kiev. And now we've just heard further news that even as trains with Western dignitaries, including Boris Johnson and Carl Bild and the National Security Advisors of Germany and Britain, interesting that they were going to Kiev at this time, were passing through a train at the very terminal in Western Ukraine,

where these trains have to stop in order for the passengers to transfer from a Ukrainian train onto a Polish train, because trains for reasons we'll discuss in a moment can't just pass from Ukraine to Poland. The tracks are different. Anyway, suddenly, the Russians are now striking this very terminal as well. A locomotive was attacked. Clearly the Russians weren't aiming to kill any of these people. But what they're doing is they're starting to work towards severing the railway connection between Kiev and Europe. And it's something that we talked about in previous programs. And it takes us back to warnings which the Russians were giving back in May, which was to the West, get out of Kiev. So everything is turning bad. Trump suddenly sees that this is going wrong.

He's taking it out on Zelensky. He's blaming Zelensky for all of these problems. That's very characteristic of Trump. He says, you're to blame for the fact that all of these attacks on the refineries, the Russian oil refineries happened, and that there's, therefore, a global shortage of diesel oil, which isn't true, by the way. I mean, you know, Russian diesel oil exports are important. but it's the situation in the Middle East which has created ultimately this crisis.

But he wants Zelensky now to turn the drone offensive off, the one he authorized last year because he understands that it has been a disaster. He wants the Ukrainians to stop so that he hopes he can persuade the Russia. to stop as well, avert this collapse in Ukraine that is now looming, get this ceasefire, which is proving so elusive and so difficult. And in the meantime, he continues to have an interneissine fight between Ratcliffe, who still wants to escalate and who wants to take over the negotiations. And with Goff and Kushner, who say, We need to take a more, a softer line.

So you could see the pressures that are beginning to build. It just feels like it's all theater, Alexander. I mean, if Trump, if Trump really want. It's always, it's always there to me. The question that I have is why is the United States? Why is Trump? And I say Trump because he's, he's the person that's sitting in the Oval Office. But why do they, why do they want to create an energy shortage?

Because that's obviously what they're trying to do. I mean, if Trump wanted to stop the strikes on diesel on the oil refineries, he would just stop sharing the data. Yes. It's that simple. He doesn't need to call Zelensky. He doesn't need to ask Zelensky to stop. He doesn't need to do any of these things.

I mean, if Trump was really calling the shots and he was really concerned about the price of diesel, he would just tell the Pentagon or the CIA to stop. I mean, you've pointed out many times that from Russia's side of things, they've actually stopped the export of diesel many times in the past. Actually, this is quite common for Russia to stop the export of diesel. They've done it before the SMO. They've done it in 2023. They've done it in 2024.

This is not unusual, especially during this time period for Russia to stop exporting diesel. But here you have Trump blaming it all on Zelensky, talking about how Zelensky is hitting the oil refineries, when everyone knows it's the United States that's behind all of this. So I'm just trying to figure out what is going on. We know all the theories out there as to why this is happening. But it's just getting to the point of absurd, the whole narrative that they're trying to push, that Trump is trying to get us to believe in it. to buy into. It's just stupid and ridiculous. We have the articles of you, President Trump,

greenlighting the strikes into Russia and all refineries. Everyone knows it's the U.S. targeting and satellite data that's hitting the refineries. Everyone knows that it's the United States that's providing the long range, the ability for the long-range missiles to hit Russia. Everyone knows that it's the drones that are being assembled and manufactured in facilities and factories in the European Union that are the ones that are being launched into the oil refineries. I mean, everyone knows this. The New York Times has documented it. The Wall Street Journal has documented it.

The Financial Times. They've all documented this, not us. They have. So what's going on here? What is going on is that there's, again, a huge war of recriminations going on within Washington. So on the one hand, there's the people who have been conducting this drone offensive. Ratcliffe, Eric Schmidt, lots and lots of others. If you, by the way, go to Eric Schmidt's article, the one way he acknowledges that the war is being lost and that the Ukrainians are now being overwhelmed by the weight of Russian power, he doesn't suggest that the United States pull back. He doesn't suggest that the United States retreat. He doesn't advocate negotiations. What he wants is a massive mobilization.

of the entire industrial, economic and scientific resources of the Western world in order to overwhelm the Russians. In other words, he advocates more escalation. Well, it's good for business. Which is good for business. So, of course, it's Radcliffe. So, of course, are all of these people. And they're telling Trump, look, you can't just pull off, pull it off.

Stop it now. You authorised us to do this thing. you have green lit it. We've done all of this enormous amount of work. We've developed the missiles. We've developed the drones. What we need to do, obviously, is not pull back. We need to increase what we're doing. We need to take an even tough line with the Russians. We need to be even more aggressive in the way that we conduct this drone and missile offensive. So that's what they're telling him. That is what Ratcliffe is telling him. There's the other side. He's, you know, extremely feeble to him of people who also want to make lots of money, Whitgolf, Kushner and co, and others,

no doubt, who want to make money because they see Russia as a big business opportunity and Kiel Demetriov is there, dangling all kinds of promises for them. So they say, you know, well, you know, why are we getting involved so deeply in all of this? Why don't we pull back, do some kind of a deal with the Russians? I mean, Koshner is now, in effect, also blaming Zelensky. He says all that Zelensky needs to do is to withdraw from certain places. And that's the only sticking point that's left now, which, by the way, I'm confident, is not true either. But you could see that there is a blame game on, there's recriminations.

Why has this not worked? And those who advocate doing it, who are always the strongest party and who with Trump always win in the end. Demand escalation. And Trump, for the moment, is dithering between the two. What do you make of this strike at this trade station? My understanding of it is that some of these people were attending the Yes Conference, the Yalta European Strategy Conference. or whatever, the clown show that was going on at this conference was about, okay, we got some interesting statements from Sikorsky, delusional statements from Sikorsky, delusional statements from the UK national security advisor, Powell, I believe is his name. Okay, expected at these events. So some of these people were attending this event. Boris Johnson was also in Kiev for three days. What's he doing there all the time? I think that's a good question that someone in the UK media should be able to. He's always there.

He's always in Kiev. These people, when they go to these conferences, like these yes conferences and all these events, I mean, are they getting, are they getting reimbursed? Are they getting paid to attend these conferences? Are they going as free guests? I mean, how do you think these conferences are operating? I am sure that they're getting paid.

I mean, not the national security advisors, not people like Jonathan Powell, for example, who is a U.S., a U.K. official. and the German, and he's a German equivalent. But I'm sure that Boris Johnson isn't going to Kiev for free. I mean, I don't know this for a fact, but I think it is inconceivable. But Boris Johnson undoubtedly is milking this for all that he can. I'm not saying that at some level he doesn't, he hasn't himself come round to believing in this.

His reputation, such as it is, is now bound out. with Zelensky and with Ukraine. So if it all falls apart, if it ends in a defeat and a collapse in Ukraine, well, I mean, this is going to reflect badly on him. So he does care about that to some extent, I think. But mostly, as I said, I think this is, well, to say, frankly, it's business. That's what a lot of this is. I mean, you've talked about the grift.

This is another aspect of the grift. But I don't think, yeah, go ahead. I think the Russians were particularly coming after these specific people. What they are doing, they have a plan which they've been working on and developing for some time, which is gradually to choke and isolate Kiev. We discussed this in previous programs. They want to cut off Kiev from communications with the West so that Zelenskyy, does ever decide to go back to Kiev.

He's traveling again, by the way. He's always away from Ukraine whenever he can. But if Zelensky is in Ukraine, if the government is still in Ukraine, and they're still in Kiev, then they're cut off from advice and direct connections, person-to-person connections with the West. Obviously, they can still receive messages by, you know, electronic means. But as we've discussed in a previous program, it's not the same thing as having Westerners there on the ground in Kiev that you can speak to and speak to in a way that creates intimacy

and also avoids the danger of somebody else being able to listen to the communications that are taking place. So the Russians are working towards that, and they have gradually been breaking the whole structures around Kiev. They mean attacking the warehouses where the drones are stored. They've been attacking the industrial facilities in Kiev. They're attacking the energy places. And they're now grass.

gradually moving towards attacking both the railway station in Kiev itself and the railway station on the border with Poland. They've not destroyed these things at the moment because they want the West to make a decision itself to quit, to leave Kiev. And they're still keeping the door open for that to happen. if they shut the door, whilst the Western people are still in Kiev itself, that is difficult and embarrassing. That might create a crisis, a diplomatic crisis. You might have to negotiate corridors to let these people leave, which could create all kinds of problems. And, of course, if you create this kind of corridors, people you do not want to leave Kiev might always. also escape through them. So you want to create a situation where the Western powers themselves

decide Kiev is becoming too dangerous, travel to Kiev is becoming too dangerous. We have to leave Kiev and the Ukrainians are left to themselves in Kiev. Of course, if the Ukrainians leave en masse, I'm talking about government now and set up new leaders. dish of places, their new capital, if you like, involve or somewhere else, then that leaves Kiev emptied and the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government challenged and the Russians can simply move in and take over. So I think this is what the Russians are working towards doing. Yeah, an empty Kiev is a Kiev that the Russians can come in and just claim a government How legitimate government in Kiev

if Zelensky goes to Levov. And takes this whole administration with him. Exactly. Yeah, that would be the end. And that would be the end. Yeah, the train, my understanding of the train incident was that Boris Johnson and all these characters

were on a train that had already made it to Poland and then the Russians, they hit the locomotive, but they hit it in a very precise way so that it didn't endanger the passenger cart. They hit the front part of the front engine. And they disabled one locomotive. And Petraeus was on a separate train, but he was at the train station.

So he was present when the drone strike hit the one train, or at least the engine part of that train to knock it out. these are very precise drone strikes from the Russians. Yes. What does that tell you? Well, it tells us that the drone war is changing and that the drones are revolving. So these apparently were mostly Geran two drones, which have turboprop engines and propellers. They're supposedly the older version, but they've clearly been updated.

And remember, a locomotive, by definition, is something that moves. So these are no longer Girandos that operate on pre-programmed, you know, flight paths. They're obviously controlled within Russia by flight controllers, by operators. So that means that the Russians are now able to send signals to their drones, even as they operate in Western Ukraine. Now, I think these Girandus were probably getting their signals from the repeater stations that the Russians have built in Belarus. And they've also, the Russians have also developed a technology which enables drones to pass on signals between each other. So I think this is how this was done. But the more advanced, Gerand 3,

so ground 4 and get on 5 drones, which are jet powered and which also obviously are controlled by ground operators. They, I am sure, are getting their signals from satellites from the Rasavet system, which is developing, and which, by the way, Eric Schmidt also refers to in that article. He's clearly been spooked by it by it. I mean, he's obviously shocked that the Russians have developed a Starlink alternative as rapidly as they have done. And it seems that we are probably closer to full operational use of the Raswet than many of us assumed,

at least in Ukraine. There are now some suggestions that with a further long, of more satellites, the Russians will have complete coverage, 24-7 coverage of the whole of Western Ukraine, the whole of Ukraine by this winter. The trains that used to go into Kiev during the Biden administration, they were getting permission from Russia. Did you think that stopped? I mean, I remember covering in early 2020, like, 2020. 2022 or middle late 2020, 23, when Biden would travel to Kiev or any Biden officials would travel to Kiev,

they would contact the Russian foreign ministry or the Kremlin. They would get permission to take that train to Kiev. Do you think all of that stopped because they just kind of, the collective West just assumed took it for granted, that Russia is not going to do anything? And so we can just go in and out to Kiev whenever. we want, because not only was the Biden administration asking for permission from Russia to travel to Kiev, which they were, but the frequency of trains going to Kiev has really ramped up over the past year or two. I mean, trains are going to Kiev with all of these officials.

Some people are official. Some people are government officials. Some people are not government officials, and they're going in other, they're entering Kiev with other intentions and in different capacities like Boris Johnson. But they're constantly going in and out of Kiev almost on a daily basis. And it's not so much Boris Johnson or Petraeus or Powell that are the important figures. They're the cover, they're the shield for who they're bringing with them or what they're bringing with them. Well, exactly.

Because I have no doubt that on the train. with Powell and all of these guys. When they were Sikorski, they're bringing all kinds of intel officials, military planners, all kinds of documents and other things that they can coordinate and plan their next strikes or whatever they're up to. I mean, what's happened with the train situation? And is Russia going to shut that off now? Well, I think they are moving towards shutting it off.

Now, this is, you're quite right, by the way. I mean, certainly when Biden visited Kiev, I remember there was quite an elaborate process of the Americans contacting the Russians, getting Russian permission when Biden went to Kiev, that there would be no interference with that from the Russians and the Russians agreed. Now, I personally believe that for some time now, trains have been going backwards and forwards to Kiev without very much. without this constant contact between the Russians and the West. I suspect that at some point, who knows when, 2022, 2023, probably 2022, there was a general agreement that the Russians would not try to attack trains traveling to Kiev from the West. But then in May of this year, the Russians told the West, close your embassies in Kiev and move out.

Take your people out. And I suspect that around that time, the Russians told the West this agreement is no longer in force. And we're starting to see that they're taking steps. They're making strikes close to the railway station in Kiev itself. And now they've conducted this other strike on the locomotive close to the, or not close, on the border with Poland. So the green light that the Russians had given for this train traffic is ending. I mean, it maybe has formally ended.

Bear in mind when Witkoff and Kushner were in Moscow a couple of about week ago, the widespread assumption was that the Russians were going to pause strikes on Kiev to enable Whitgolf and Kushner to fly directly to Kiev from Moscow. But the Russians refused and they continued to conduct. strikes in areas close to Kiev airport, which is, by the way, located in an eastern suburb of Kiev called Borisbo. And the result was that we'd go from Kushner had to travel to Warsaw and take the train from Warsaw to Kiev instead, and was there to do a much more complicated route. So you could see that the Russians are no longer being accommodating.

with Westerners who want to travel to Kiev. They're gradually, very gradually, not immediately, for the reasons I said, they want the Westerners to leave by themselves. They're gradually tightening their grip on Kiev. And by the way, I think they will get what they want. There will come a moment when Western governments decide to take their people out of Kiev. They did so in 2022 on the eve of the special military operation. And eventually they will do so again. If the situation in Kiev becomes increasingly difficult, if transport links to Kiev begin to become threatened and to break down, it'll become increasingly difficult for Western governments

to justify keeping their embassies and their people in Kiev. It's a gradual thing, but you can see that the Russians are slowly tightening their grip on the city. Yeah, I asked you that question because it seems to me, listening to everything that you're saying and going through the news, that Kiev operates because the Russians allow it to operate. Yes, yes. The Zelensky administration operates because the Russians allow it to operate. And much the same way that Odessa was operating as a full functioning port was because, There was an agreement in 2022, mediated and brokered by the UN and by Turkey. And the Russians allowed the export of Ukrainian food and grain, as well as the import of weapons that would enter Ukraine through the port.

Russia allowed it. Things changed. Ships were hit by the collective West in the Sea of Azov, and Russia decided it's time to close the port of Odessa, and they did so. Trains were also hit in Russia. There were many attacks on civilian passenger trains in Russia from Ukraine and the collective West. So it seems as if whatever happened in Odessa or what is happening in Odessa is going to occur in Kiev as well. Absolutely.

I mean, that seems to be the pattern. You get a hint at this in Eric Schmidt's article in The Washington Post. He says that the Russians are moving towards a. policy of total war. Now, he relates this to industrial mobilization and all of that. But he also makes it clear that it is total war in the way that the war has been conducted in Ukraine itself. And remember, Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said twice, once in an interview to the Russian media, once in an interview with the Swiss media. So it was not a mistake. It was a mistake. It was It's not an accident when he said it.

And Peskov always says what Putin tells him to say, that the actions of the West have turned what was a limited military operation, an SMO, into an actual war. And you see that the Russians are responding. And Eric Schmidt now complains about a total war. the Russians waging total war on Ukraine. But who was it ultimately who brought that about? Just to say, absolutely. Just to wrap up the video very quickly, what did you make of Sikorsky's comment about Poland going to war with Russia and how they could wipe out Russia in a matter of, I think he said, six weeks. They could take out all of the oil refineries. If Ukraine is done it six months,

He said that Poland and NATO, the collective West, could do it in six weeks and they have overwhelming air superiority and stuff like that. I mean, what did you make of that clown world's boneheaded comment from Skorsky? It is exactly what you said is clown world stuff. I mean, it really is. At its own level, it is completely and completely bizarre. Just to say foreign minister of Poland, by the way. Foreign minister, foreign minister of Poland. But, I mean, it's a demand ultimately for escalation. What Sikorsky is saying is, let's not be afraid of the Russians. They may talk a big game. They may be obliterated Kiev and attacking Adessa and doing all of these things.

But at the end of the day, we are stronger. They are weak. We are strong. We can hit them. And you see others are talking in this way too. So we have Sikorsky talking like that. We have Mark Rutter, the NATO Secretary General. He's just given a extraordinary speech in which he says the same.

Very same thing. You know, Russia is weak. We are strong. We can defeat the Russians. Eric Schmidt is also talking about escalation. And I have no doubt that that is what Ratcliffe is also telling Trump privately as well. They say, look, we're too far in now to pull back. You know, it's what you always refer to, the SunCost's fallacy.

But I'm sure that's how they're selling it to Trump. We're too far in. The Russians aren't really that strong. Let's escalate instead. let's start attacking their missile bases inside, inside Russia itself. Of course, we'll get the Ukrainians to do it initially, but we'll give them the missiles, missiles, which we have incredibly short supply, and we'll start doing that as well. Let's start launching missiles at Moscow. Let's start doing all of these things. And that will somehow turn the tables and let's try and engage in even more military

mobilization in the West. And that way, that way we will win the war and we will force the Russians to the negotiating table. And at the moment, I think they're basically framing it to Trump as getting a ceasefire. But of course, they really still want. regime change in Moscow, because that is what they have always been about. So on the one hand, you can laugh at what Sikorsky is saying, because it is so obviously delusional. But put that aside, as I said, it is escalation that these people are demanding. Sikorsky demanded it. Eric Schmidt is demanding it. I'm sure Radcliffe is demanding it. And as I pointed out in one of my recent videos, it has been an article in The Guardian in Britain, which is demanding it also. Strikes against

Russian bases, all of those kind of things. They must now be conducted and NATO must be directly involved in the war. And Putin has now given a warning, by the way. He said if NATO does involve itself directly in the war. If the European troops do enter Ukraine, they're at war with Russia. We will leave it there. If Iran is locals, we are on substack. Go to Durand shop, pick up so much. All those links in the description box down below. Take care.