The Duran Podcast - Russia captures Chasov Yar. NATO 2027 war plan

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

Russia captures Chasov Yar. NATO 2027 war planThe Duran: Episode 2298

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the palace intrigue in Ukraine surrounding Zelensky. And we also have some news from the front lines as well. The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that Chasseh Sulfiar has been captured. The Russian Ministry of Defense, they always take weeks, sometimes a month or more, to announce the capture of a region that many analysts would have said was captured way back, way back when, but that's just how the Russian Ministry of Defense operates. But anyway, an important announcement, nonetheless, about Chasofyar. We're also getting a picture in Bakrowski that it is collapsing a whole lot faster than anyone possibly imagined. This may be causing a lot of

the panic in the collective West, and a lot of panic that we see play out with Trump's truth, social tantrums. But anyway, what do you think is happening in, in Ukraine? We also have a lot of rumors, and they are just rumors about Nabu and the anti-corruption and how it was actually looking at some of the business dealings of Zelensky and one of his confidants who was also working with Kolomoisky and Yermak. Still rumors, but I think it's indicative. It points us to a certain direction of chaos and collapse in the key. have a power structure. Absolutely. Well, I mean, you're right to start with the military situation,

because that is what is driving events always. In the West, they basically stop talking about the military situation very much because, I mean, they still want to cling on to the idea that the situation on the front lines is stable and that the Russians aren't making that much progress. The Russians are making a lot of progress and they're breaking through the big defence lines that Ukraine had created after the 2014 crisis. In other words, we're close to the moment when the Russians achieved their big breakthrough and their collapse. And the Chasifaya news is part of that.

I just explain a bit about Chasovya. Chasvhyaar is basically a satellite town of the larger Bahmert, conurbation. Bachmut, Solidar, Chasovya, Kordyumovka, all of them were basically a sort of cluster. This is very much like the way that Donbass is. So you have Severodonets Lysitschansk, which then leads on to backmut, which then leads on to Slaviansk, Kramatose, Konstantinivka. It is an almost continuous urban sprawl. The Ukrainians held on to Chasovya. very doggedly because it is the high ground. I mean, Bachmut, Chassefya are the high ground. If you gain control of Chasovya, then you're able to look down on the next town,

which is Konstantinovka, and even Kranatosk. So it puts you in a strategically stronger position. And, well, it does look as it the Russians have indeed finally and completely captured that place. They captured, as you correctly said, the core of the town some months ago, that as is often the way with Russian, Soviet era towns, there's various housing developments in high-rise buildings that are built some distance from the centre of the town itself. The Russians were spending a lot of time clearing those. It looks as if that's now been completed. and that whole territory now is under Russian control. So this brings the Russians with immeasurable distance of their final objective, which is these three towns, Slavians, Kramatosk, Konstantinovka.

And the other thing that's happening is Pakrovsk, which is located some distance away. It's a more isolated place. It now definitely looks as if it's about to fall. Not only are things moving much faster there than we've seen, than anybody expected and that we've seen previously in the war, but it looks as if the Russians have now reached the centre of Pakrovsk. And it could be that this collapse and Pakrovsk is now only a short time away.

So Chassevya, Pakrovsk falling, the defence line finally collapses. We are very close to that point where the Ukrainian positions in Dombas become untenable. Once the Ukrainians are forced to retreat from Dombas, we're beyond the urban sprawl, we're beyond the big defense lines. As we discussed in our previous program, discussing these things, they've been trying to create in the countryside, basically, a new trench and fortified line. west of these places, but that is unlikely. It becomes much more likely that the Russians will be able to push forward all the way to the Nipa. And, well, we've discussed in many programs,

how catastrophic for Ukraine that would be. So all of this is now feeding in to the situation in Kiev, and you're starting to see the first hints, and there are only hints so far, of a crisis there. Now, it's difficult to work out exactly what is going on, and some people, like the Russian intelligence, are clearly stirring the pot of it. And Russian intelligence produced an extraordinary claim that there's been a meeting of Yermak, who is Zelensky's chief of staff, Zoluzni, who was the former military commander, but who's now Ukraine's ambassador to London, and Budan of the intelligence. Chief, that they all met with the British and the Americans in a resort in the Alps, and they agreed to remove Zelensky. A lot of the people have run with that story, assuming that it must be true, I don't believe a word of it.

These three men all hate each other. And it's most inconceivable, I think, that they would work together with the Americans and the British to bring down Zelensky. And Yermak, who is the most important of the three, is so tied to. to Zelensky, that his Zelensky were to fall, it's impossible to imagine that Yamak would not fall with him. But the Russians are clearly doing this, because there are rumors in Kiev itself that things are becoming unstable. Nabu and Sopar, of course, there's still a tussle about those. We don't know what is ultimately going to happen to them. Zelensky has been saying,

well, on the one hand, I have to control them, to purge them of the so-called Russian influence that's contaminated them. There's no evidence. He's produced no evidence of that. Nobody believes it. There are rumours that Nabu and Solpa was starting to investigate members of his inner circle. That may be true. And there's stories of scandals and all kinds of problems coming to the surface.

He's however said that there's going to be some kind of a law that will restore their independence. We don't know what that means. I know that it meets very much. The EU appears to be having cold feet about providing funding to Ukraine. There's problems with US military deliveries. They're running short. And of course there's the crisis on the battlefields. So there's all of these rumors starting to develop in Kiev.

We've seen the protests that took place there. Apparently more protests are planned. There's unease in the army. There's also, and I think this is the one thing we can say for definite, there's also signs that at least of those three people who were supposed to have met the Americans and the British in that alpine resort, one of them, Zillusioni definitely seems to be making some kind of a move because he's given interviews to Vogue, the Ukrainian media.

He seems to be promoting himself as Ukraine's savior. The interview, which was nonsense, by the way, was all his philosophies and ideas of the future and all of that, all of that seemed to be positioning Zalusini as the man who would be Ukraine's savior and he would step in and take over and rescue Ukraine from the disaster, which it is now facing. So all of this is ultimately a product of the ongoing military collapse,

but we can see that the strains are beginning to show. Yeah, it's illusioning in vogue. I imagine that the soldiers that are suffering on the front line if they manage to see some of these photos or read that interview must be, absolutely horrified at seeing their one-time commander in a suit. Interesting that he's wearing a suit. Soansky continues to wear his sweatpants, but interesting that he's, he's wearing a suit and he looks very, very dapper and very statesman-like. Obviously, the UK, by insisting, and I think this is what happened, by insisting that Zolluzni become ambassador to the UK, we

talked about this in a video a couple of years ago, and I think we've been proven correct now. The UK held Zillusioni as a backup plan. That's why they wanted him in the UK, not because he's going to be an ambassador. What does the Lusini know about being an ambassador? Give me a break. Anyway, they wanted him close. They wanted him close to the Intel services. They wanted him close to the British establishment, because they probably saw Zillusioni as the fallback in case this very unstable, very erratic Zelensky just collapsed. And I think that's what we're seeing. And so the dynamic, in my opinion, I don't know what you think, is the UK is perhaps making a move to put Zolluzny in as president, believing that this will preserve Project Ukraine, while the

Europeans are still very much in support of Zelensky, but they're having doubts now because Zelensky is starting to mess around with their money. And when it comes to the EU kleptocrats, you know, it's all about the money when you're dealing with the Brussels kleptocrats. Zelensky's, from what I understand, Zelensky's body cards are controlled by Macron. His security is Macron's. These are Macron's guys. Anyway, what do you, what are your thoughts about that dynamic? And what do you think the U.S. fits into all of this?

Well, that's an extra question. And I mean, I'm sure the U.S. is involved. I don't think, I still think that in spite of everything, Trump doesn't like Zelensky very much. There was that article by Seymour Hirsch that suggests. that Trump wants to see Zelensky go, I have to say there were so many problems with that article about, you know, and other unrelated matters that I had doubts about it. But given that we are now seeing plots or some evidence of plots beginning to develop in Ukraine, it's likely, I would have thought that some people in the US do want to see Zelensky replaced with Zolucci. a more predictable, more reliable person. Apparently Zalusini had a reasonably good relationship with the military people in the Pentagon

and some of the people in the intelligence world. Zelensky, by contrast, is difficult and abrasive character and nobody terribly likes him, as we've seen. So I can imagine that the Americans and the British really are involved in all of this, and it may be that the Europeans are starting to waver in their long historic Love affair with Zelensky as well. The problem is that if this is the plan, then it is a bad one because it doesn't address the underlying problems. You can remove Zelensky and put Zollosuni in, but that's not going to change the military situation on the battlefields.

You could say, well, Zilluzni is there. So, you know, let's give him more weapons and more money. So you can increase the flow of money and weapons. But everybody agrees that the Ukrainian army is now very disorganized and very fragmented, that there aren't enough men in the army at the moment. The front lines are breaking, attempts to mobilize and conscript more people, which is something that Zalusini has supported, by the way, have been very unpopular and have met much resistance from within Ukrainian

in society. Replacing Zelensky with Zollosuny isn't going to solve any problem. And of course, unless Delusiony is prepared to negotiate with the Russians on the basis of Russia's terms, I can't see why the Russians would be interested or impressed simply because Zelensky himself has gone, just to say. So, I mean, I don't see this thing taking us further forward in any way. And in fact, If anything, I see the exact opposite. Whatever you think of Zelensky and, you know, everybody knows what I think of Zelensky. I mean, I don't think much of Zelensky. But the fact is he was elected president of Ukraine.

He has a constitution, he did have a constitutional mandate behind him. Arguably, that ran out in May, but he's still the president in place. The parliament continues to allow him to. remain in office. The Western powers have continued to recognize him. He still has a certain degree of legitimacy in Ukraine. If Zelensky is removed through what will be in effect some kind of a coup, you know, either he's bundled away by his French security people or somebody says, you know, you know, Zelensky, you're very ill, you need a holiday when we got this nice sanatorium and in Provence where you could stay or something like that.

Or he's persuaded to resign and I can't imagine that would be a very easy thing to accomplish. But anyway, however it was done, it would still be a coup. Zillusioni would come in, presumably as acting president or transitional president. He would have come to power in a completely unconstitutional way. in the middle of a war, I can't really see how he would then have the authority to make the really big, important decisions that Ukraine needs to make if it is going to rescue itself. On the contrary, people would see that Zelensky could be bundled off. They'll be saying to themselves, well, if Zolluzni does things, we can bundle him off too. The political center in Kiev would begin to look extremely fragile. And frankly, this looks to me like a recipe for political collapse on top of the military collapse, which we are already starting to see.

So I don't think this solves any problem. I can easily see how in the short term it could make it worse. the number one the number one best outcome for the collective West which is a completely unrealistic, fantastical outcome is that somehow

Russia agrees to Kellogg's ceasefire plan they capitulate and eventually you get a regime change of Putin. That's their number one their most optimal hope going forward, but I mean, it's not going to happen.

No, I mean, can I just interrupt by saying, I think that might actually be the plan. I mean, you know, you replace Zelensky with Zoluzni. There is this narrative that you see all over the media here, especially in Britain, that Putin and Zelensky loathe each other. And this is somehow a personal thing. So you get Zeluzni in and the Russians, oh, wonderful. We have Zalusini now, and we're going to agree a ceasefire with him. We weren't prepared to do it with Zelensky, but this is a new president,

so we're going to agree with Szilis. I think it's this complete misreading of the Russian position. They've never shown much interest in Zelensky. They've shown no interest in Zolensky either. I think this is what they really think. As I said, I think they've misjudged the situation completely, And it's not going to happen exactly, as you say. Yeah, I mean, you know, the collective West, the UK should take a look at Zillusionne's pictures with Bandera.

Yeah. Right there in the background of the picture of Bandera in back of him. And I think you'll understand that the Russians have no liking or sympathy for Zilluzni. It's probably the opposite of that, definitely the opposite of that. But the other plan, which I believe they're aiming for, with this whole Zillusiony thing, or at least they're poking around with figuring out some sort of Zelensky replacement,

is to extend the conflict. Trump gave an interesting interview where he now says the conflict is going to be a long conflict. Right? So we've gone from 24 hours to a long conflict now. Europe and NATO, they keep on throwing out this number of 2027. That's when they're going to be ready to fight Russia. The UK says 2027, we're going to be ready to fight Russia. Germany says the same thing. Poland says the same thing.

NATO says the same thing. They have this belief that in 27, they'll build up their militaries to a point where they'll be able to finally take on Russia, whatever that means. Is that the plan? Germany is now talking about a massive rearmament military purchasing initiative where they're going to build up their military to the point where they'll be able to fight a war with Russia. Merch is really talking this up. Is that the goal here?

Let's find a way any way we can. It looks like Trump has now bought into this. Big surprise. It doesn't surprise me, of course, but Trump has now bought into this idea that let's extend this war, keep Russia bogged down as much as we can, which means keep Ukraine somehow in this thing fighting so that we can be ready by 2027 to go to war with Russia. Is that what they're thinking?

Yes, I think there is. I mean, I think that that is what they're saying to each other. I'm sure there are some people who inwardly, inwardly must have doubts about this and understand what an utterly fantastic and wildly unrealistic project this is. But anyway, I mean, the Europeans, ever since Trump became president, they've shown quite conclusively that what they want is the war to continue for as long as possible, either until Russia is defeated or until they're ready for whatever it is they want to be ready for. But they certainly have made no effort. But no, they've never produced in all of the time since Trump became president, even when Trump was talking about doing some kind of a deal with the Russians. They've never produced any proposal of their own as to how to achieve peace. They've never done that. All of their talk has been about conflict, long-term war with Russia, rearmament, rebuilding,

all of those sort of things. To repeat again, I don't believe that the European Union. and the British government really expect that they're going to be at war with Russia in 27. They may talk all this time about it. They may say this to each other, but I think deep down they all understand that the West Saudi Europe is not ready for a war with Russia. And if it worked it, seek a war with Russia at this time.

if no nuclear weapons were used, it would lose. And more likely than not, nuclear weapons would be used, and it would be World War III. And we know what the outcome of that would be. So I don't think they really expect to be at war with Russia. But to repeat again, about the European Union, about the political class in Europe, about the political class in Britain, which despite Brexit is itself part of the European political class. That's why they hated Brexit so much. What their major priority is, is to retain control. We've discussed this in program after program. And they've instrumentalized conflict with Russia in order to retain control over their own populations. And for that reason,

the very last thing they want is an end to the conflict in Ukraine, an actual real return to peace in Europe, because if peace like that were to return to Europe, then perhaps political space would reopen for challenges to start to be made to the European leadership, which they would no longer have the instruments to stifle in the way that we've already seen. So this is what this is about now. It's about retaining control. This is all that the European Union is. I mean, the European Union has failed in terms of its economic policies.

I mean, growth in Europe has essentially disappeared. This is a block in economic stagnation. Its industries are declining. Living standards across the union are declining. it's a bloc whose inability to conduct trade negotiations has now been brutally exposed, as we've seen with the deal that Ursula did with Trump. I mean, the Americans are saying the Europeans weren't even negotiating

at any point during the entire period when there were discussions over how to move forward. The European Union has failed as a cultural enterprise, as a geopolitical enterprise, it's got difficult relations with the United States, it's destroyed its relations with Russia, it's destroying its relations with China, it's failed at everything it's doing, it's not even managed to control migrant flows, it repeatedly promises to do. So what does it have?

What can it still offer to the people of Europe? protection from the dark forces that are there coming to take over Europe and the East. That's all they have. Yeah. All right. We will end it there. The durand. dot locals.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, Bitrate Telegram X.

Go to the Duran shop pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. There is a link in the description box down below. Take care.