The Duran Podcast - Russia claims drones targeted Putin's residence. Ukraine denies

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

Russia claims drones targeted Putin's residence. Ukraine denies

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the drone strikes into President Putin's residence, his country residence in Novgorod. And your thoughts on these drone strikes? I mean, what to say? Lavrov comes out with a statement. That's how I learned about it. It comes out with a statement and says 91 drones from Ukraine were heading towards the president's residence and the drones were knocked down.

the Ministry of Defense said all the drones were knocked down, there were no casualties. And that was the statement that kicked everything off. And then Putin spoke to Trump. He told Trump, Trump is angry. Trump is shocked. Trump said, good, good thing. I didn't send tomahawks. But then you had Zelensky denying all of this. This is some sort of Russian false flag and Russian disinfo. And everyone is kind of wondering what is going on? Did this really happen? Is this a Russian false flag. Is this something else? Various channels are going through the numbers of what the Ministry of Defense announced that within the hours of 11 p.m. on the 28th to the morning of 7 a.m. It was 89 drones. Lavrov said 91 drones. So there's a discrepancy there. But the Ministry of

Defense also published another post saying that from the 28th to the 29th, there were 91 drones that headed in the direction of Novgorod, I don't think that's the important part. I think the important part is trying to understand if there were indeed 18 drones or 30 drones or 90 drones that were targeting the president's residency and what that means for things going forward. Anyway, your thoughts on this. Well, I get it first of all, say straight away that in this, about this affair, I believe the Russian account.

I mean, there might be some discrepancies between what one person is saying Lavrov is saying and the Ministry of Defense is saying. But, you know, as you're absolutely rightly saying, these sorts of situations, discrepancies like that, and these are trivial discrepancies, are inconsequential. Could I just clarify the discrepancy real quick? Because Lavrov said 91, the Ministry of Defense before Lavrov's statement published 89 drones from a certain hour, from 11 p.m. to 7. AM, I believe. But then later on in the day, the Ministry of Defense said from the 28th to the 29th, 91 drones. Exactly. In that direction, it doesn't mean the statement from the Ministry of Defense, Alexander,

didn't, to everyone watching, it didn't say 91 drones all going to Novgorod, but 91 drones in that direction with a certain number of those drones, making it towards Novgorod and being knocked down in that region. So anyway, I just wanted to clarify the state. I think you're right to do, and in fact, it's good that you have done so. But I mean, the explanation, as far as I'm concerned, is a very simple one, which is that Lavrov made a mistake. I mean, it's, he probably assumed that the 91 drones that the Russian Defence Ministry probably reported to him, that they were all focused on this one target, which would have been an enormous number of drones on one target, by the way. and in fact, it was otherwise.

But can I say that there's a whole number of other things about this incident that, I mean, make me believe this. First of all, on Christmas Day, Vladimir Zelensky made a Christmas address in which he quite straightforwardly made it clear that he wanted to see Putin killed. Now, there is an article about this in the Daily Telegraph. I mean, they said Zelensky desires Putin's death and mentions this in a Christmas address. Vladimir Zelensky appeared to wish for Vladimir Putin's death in his annual Christmas address to Ukraine. Today, we all share one dream and we make one wish for all of us. May he perish. The comment was widely understood.

to refer to the Russian president who has continued to bombard Kiev during peace, ongoing peace talks. So that's the Daily Telegraph. It's not from me. It's widely reported into the international media that just a couple of days ago, on Christmas Day, Vladimir Zelensky made that observation. Now, secondly, we know because no less a person than Kirill Updanov, the Ukrainian intelligence Chief has told us some months ago that the Ukrainians have made several attempts to assassinate

Putin, but that all of them obviously have been unsuccessful up to now. And the third is that we know that the Ukrainians regularly carry out assassinations. They no longer denied this anymore. I mean, they no longer deny that they are involved in the killing of generals and senior military officials in Russia. And the Western media now reports these killings without any without even so much as blinking. And I believe, here I might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that I saw that MediaZona now includes Russian generals killed through assassinations

in Moscow and other places amongst Russian casualties in the war. So the Ukrainians have formed this. They've said in the past that they wanted, they've been trying in the past to assassinate. Putin. There was an attack back in, I think, April 2023 on the Kremlin using a Ukrainian drone. I mean, again, it was widely accepted at the time. It was a Ukrainian drone. And we have those words from Vladimir Zelensky just a few days ago on Christmas Day, in which he seemed to be suggesting that, you know, they wanted to see Putin killed. So given this accumulation of evidence,

I mean, it does look as if, to me, this is very much the kind of thing you would expect the Ukrainians to be doing. Conversely, if you're looking at this from the perspective of Russian history, and remember, this is the most historically minded government, perhaps in the world, and we've discussed this many times, Putin himself, is a historian, there are multiple reasons why they would not want to give him. even the slightest hint that there had been an attack on their leader. There's been many assassinations or attempted assassinations of Russian leaders. Alexander II, the Tsar, was assassinated. Nicholas II was killed in circumstances we all know.

Vladimir Lenin was almost assassinated and was very, very badly injured and went into a massive decline as a result. All of this is very well known in Russia. They have created huge instability in the country. And the whole concept of provocation tactics, as we have discussed in programs in the past, is one which is as a result regarded with deep suspicion and even abhorrence within the Russian security services. So it doesn't seem to me like the sort of thing the Russians would make up. And it is the sort of thing that plausibly the Ukrainians might do.

And most governments around the world outside the West seem to be going along with the Russian story, as by the way, just to say, is Donald Trump. So I think there was an attempt. It targeted Putin's Valdai residence, which is near Novgorod. There was a report some months ago in the British media, in the Daily Telegraph, by the way, which claimed that that was where Putin was mostly based. And so this might have been a story that was circulating in Kiev, in London, in other European capitals that Putin pretends that he's in the Kremlin, but he's really most of the time in Valdai.

So carry out an attack against Valdai and hope the baby something gets through and reaches Putin himself. Putin himself for the record says that since the start of the special military operation, he spends nearly all his time in the Kremlin, and that's where he sleeps in the apartment he has there, and that's partly precisely because he is well guarded there. So I have to say, when you put it all together, I believe the Russian story. Now, of course, there's not been an independent investigation. There's not been the kind of thorough investigation from outsiders that some would want.

But anyway, that is my view. And I've explained why. The media zone does show the Russian military officials, generals, major generals, colonels. It does track the officials who have been killed. To date, the deaths of 12 Russian generals. generals have been officially confirmed, three lieutenant generals, even major generals, and two who had retired from active service. I've taken that directly from the MediaZona site.

So they are tracking that. You're correct. MediaZona is a cooperation with the BBC, correct? Correct. Correct. And the BBC is UK state-owned, correct? Absolutely. Absolutely.

So we have a well established record that the Ukrainians carry out assassins. nations. And we have those words from Zelensky, just a couple of days ago. Put that together and you have a compelling case. It's circumstantial, but that doesn't make it any the less than that. Well, for Putin to tell this to Trump, you have to imagine that Putin's not lying about this or bluffing about this because the United States would have all this information. I mean, Trump could easily go to his people and say, give me the satellite info. Were there long, these are long range drones, so they would obviously know. Were there long-range drones heading towards Putin's Valdai residents?

And Trump would get that information. So Trump would know right away if Putin was trying to pull a fast one or not. And why would Putin do that? That doesn't make any sense. Why would he tell Trump all about this, knowing that the United States would have the FO, knowing that many countries would have the satellite. For example, Modi, the UAE, Modi, Pakistan. So many countries have come out and said that they condemn this action by, allegedly by Ukraine.

And they would also know if there were long-range drones that were heading in the direction of Novgorod. I mean, they have this information. So the U.S., if it really wanted to trump the U.S., they could come out with the info and say, look, here's the data. Putin's not telling the truth. if they had such information. But if they stay silent, then I would take it as an admission that what Putin and Lovanov are saying is accurate. Absolutely.

That's absolutely right. So, I mean, 90% sure, 99% sure that this happened exactly, as the Russians say. I mean, I will leave the 1% because I am not there. And as I said, there's not been an independent investigation. But as I said, the circumstantial cases is, is, is extremely compelling. At least so it seems to me. Here's the 1% question for you. Did Zelensky know? Did Trump, did Trump, because you got to imagine that this attack being done is going to use US satellite or US targeting or UK assistance

or EU assistance, right? I mean, Ukraine is not doing these attacks on their own. So, did Trump know? This brings me to the incident of the Operation Spiders Web, right? Remember that? When they went after the nuclear triad, who was behind that? Was it just Ukraine? Or was it the UK, the Europeans, the United States, the three-letter agencies in the U.S.? I mean, there is that possibility that this was done on behalf of certain forces. in Kiev or in Ukraine, maybe Zelensky didn't know. Maybe he didn't know. Maybe Trump was genuinely shocked and angry.

I believe he was. But it doesn't mean that there weren't parts of the vast, big U.S. government that may have looked the other way as this satellite data was being used to target in Novgorod or the UK. I mean, I'm just throwing stuff out there to you because I don't think it's this clear cut as meeting with Trump and. And Putin ends, a meeting with Zelensky and Trump ends. And Zelensky gives the green lights to send the drones towards Putin's residency.

I don't know. I don't see a scenario like that happening. But I don't know. What are your thoughts? Well, let's start with Zelensky. I mean, assuming this happened, I'm going to assume that it happened, exactly as the Russians said. I don't think there's any doubt that he would have been involved. I mean, he said what he said on Christmas Day.

he's never at any point in time distanced himself from any of these assassinations that have taken place in Russia. In fact, he seems to be a massive proponent of this sort of thing. So given his own words spoken on Christmas Day, I mean, I have no serious doubt that he was himself fully informed and absolutely. absolutely involved and knew exactly what was happening. Again, if he wants to explain away his words, then it's up to him, but notice that up to now, he hasn't done so. So that's that Zelensky. Now, in terms of Trump, I'm absolutely sure that he had no idea about any of this. He was talking to Putin just previously. He seems to have had a, he was talking about having a very good call with Putin, he seems to be taking positions that, to some extent, at least, align more closely with

Russia's positions. He seems keen to establish a rapprochement with Russia in some form or other. I mean, it's all very unclear, and it's all uncertain. But, I mean, I just don't believe that Donald Trump would have been personally parties something like this. There is another factor, which just bear in mind, Donald. Trump himself is the survivor of two assassination attempts, one of which nearly killed him, came very, very close to killing him. In fact, it's almost a miracle that he's still alive.

And I, again, I cannot quite bring myself to believe that a person who has been through that kind of moment, that kind of event, would be party to an assassination of this kind, an assassination attempt of this guy. So that is my view. I mean, I would have thought that Trump would be nervous of assassinations, far from wanting to advocate for them, given his own very recent experience. It was just a year and a half ago, remember. So I don't believe that Trump was involved. Other parts of the deep state, other European countries, absolutely. I mean, I'm sorry to say this. I'm very, very sorry to say this, but there's been clearly a dirty war, been underway for quite a long time. You're the first to say it.

I know, absolutely. A year, a year and a half ago, you said that this is the direction we're going to go towards. Sorry, I mean, I just, we have to say it because this is a year and a half ago where you said this is going to eventually shift to some sort of a dirty war. Dirty war. And we see it. And that's exact. And that is exactly where we are. And obviously the Ukrainians, I mean, are involved.

involved, even if they weren't involved for this incident, which I'm absolutely sure they were, by the way, just to repeat again. But they have certainly been involved in many others. And I have no doubt that other intelligence agencies are involved. Blaise Metro Wellie, the MI6 director, the UMI6 director, did a speech recently in which he spoke about MI6 needing to rediscover the skills of Britain's Second World War Special Operations Executive, which conducted sabotage and assassination operations in German-occupied Europe. Now, obviously, she was looking forward rather than backward. But I have to say this.

I think the Russians will have taken those words to mean that the British are involved in this dirty war. Now, in fairness to her, and I want to say this, she did then immediately call Naryshkin, the Russian foreign intelligence chief, and perhaps she tried to reassure him, say, you know, we're not involved. But that there is a dirty war. There is absolutely no doubt the Ukrainians are involved. And I have no doubt also that others are involved too. We've had drone attacks on tankers, you know, from the so-called shadow fleet.

of the coast of West Africa and in the Mediterranean. Obviously, somebody is assisting the Ukrainians with doing those things. And it's all but inconceivable that the Ukrainians would be doing these kind of attacks without getting assistance from someone. And bear in mind the very fact that European governments continuously cover Zelensky and the Europeans for these sort of operations in itself is a form of complicity. Nord Stream. Kremaya Bridge a couple of times where Ukraine, where Zelensky denied it at first,

or Budanov denied it at first, and then they admitted to it afterwards. There was an assassination attempt on Putin allegedly during the whole curse helicopter thing. We mentioned Operation Spider-Web. Remember, way in the beginning of the conflict, Zelensky tried to actually get a war between NATO and Russia with the drones that fell in Poland. And Zelensky was actually trying to get a hot war between NATO and Russia. And then it was found out that these drones were Ukrainian. Yes, sorry, drones. S-300, I believe it was. Yes, correct. Correct. And then you have a lot of statements also from Budanov, who has admitted that they have.

have been trying to assassinate the Russian president, as well as all the not only generals assassinated inside of Russia, the journalists, the daughter of Russian intellectuals. I mean, it's, yeah, no doubt about it that there's been a dirty war happening and it is escalating. Yes. We see it with the tankers. Do you think that this incident was about assassinating Putin or about sabotaging the negotiations between the U.S. and Russia? Because the negotiations between Trump and Zelensky did not go well. Exactly.

If they went well and we assume that this was done by Ukraine or Ukraine was. part of it if the talks went well. Can you assume that this launch would not have been greenlit? I mean, what are your thoughts on that? Well, the short answer is that it was both a serious attempt to assassinate Putin and it was an attempt to wreck negotiations between Russia and the United States. I mean, the one does not exclude the other. I mean, they clearly complement each other. Ukraine is in a very, very bad position. Zelensky is in a very, very, very very bad position. The Ukrainians are losing ground on the front lines. We've done a program about this, which will appear soon. But the Ukrainians have lost major positions. Their army

is starting to crumble. Their defenses in Dombasa crumbling. Their defenses in Zaporosio are crumbling. They're facing a massive crisis of desertion. There is a corruption scandal that's raging in Kiev and there's major pressures there. The money from Europe is running out. The money from the United States is virtually stopped. The arms flow from the West is virtually stopped. And as you absolutely correctly said, the meeting with Trump did not go well. Now, the Russians, by the way, have secondhand given us their own account of that meeting because Ushikov, who was, who is Putin's foreign policy advisor, a follow-up telephone call, the follow-up telephone call between Putin and Trump,

in which Putin informed Trump about this attack on his Valdai residence. Anyway, Putin, Voshakov also gave his account of what the Americans, and by the way, Whitkoff and Kushner, appeared to have been in on this call, what they told Putin about the negotiations, the discussions between the Americans and the Ukrainians. And according to Uschakov, the Americans have told Putin that the Americans told Zelensky, look, stop all of these endless attempts to try to get us to agree to a ceasefire. Stop all of these attempts to try to freeze the conflict. The Russians won't agree. We are not supporting you in all of this. You need to start thinking seriously about how to end the war, and that means negotiating seriously

on the Russian conditions. So that was obviously not what Zelensky wanted to hear. It must have seemed to him going into that meeting that the Americans are indeed aligning further with the Russians. And yes, almost certainly the green light for this attack on the Valdai residents would have been made before that meeting in Miami took place. But you can see that this atmosphere, this sense in Ukraine, everything is going wrong on the battlefronts economically, in the political crisis in Kiev, in terms of the backing of, of the US, they will have sensed this, they're going to become desperate, and of course, they're trying to find some way to escape this disaster that is now looming.

And of course, they thought that the way to do this, they think that the way to do this, and to kill off any prospect of some kind of diplomatic reproshment between the Americans and the Russians would be to assassinate Putin himself. So it makes complete sense. in the context of where we are now, you can completely understand why, given the kind of people that we're talking about, given the sort of things they have been doing in the past, you know, the dirty war and all of that, why they would have done this thing at this time. Very serious. This is very, very serious what's happening.

Putin, I think it's worth remembering that on various occasions, Putin has said to not go after Zelensky. During the first days of the special military operations, Zelensky was hiding in his bunker, afraid that something was going to happen to him. And Naftali Bennett, then Prime Minister of Israel, he mediated, he intervened. on behalf of Zelensky and he spoke to Putin, and Putin told Bennett, don't worry, we're not going to touch Zelensky. And that's when Zelensky found the courage

to go out onto the streets and to do his TikTok and Instagram videos. But we got to remember that the first week or two of the SMO, you know, he was hiding underground in a bunker, afraid that something was going to happen. But Putin said, no, we're not going to touch Zelensky. And we even got a report about a month or two ago, where there was some meeting at the Security Council that was brought up again, Zelensky and,

and him going to the front lines and doing his TikTok videos or whatever and Putin once again gave a direct order not to touch Zelensky under no circumstances are you to touch Zelensky. So Putin has given those orders knowing that going after the leader

of the country is not possible. You're not going to do it. It's out of the question, out of bounce, right? It doesn't happen. So now you have an incident where allegedly Ukraine has gone after the leader of Russia, the president of Russia.

And the response from the Kremlin and from the foreign ministry is that the reply, the response to this action is going to be non-diplomatic and that Russia is going to also reassess the negotiations, diplomacy, the terms that they've been discussing with the United States and that have been on the table for Ukraine and for Zelensky. So a lot is going to change. What do you think is going to change? What do you think is going to be the response? What do you think is going to change? Not a diplomatic response. They said. So obviously that means a military response or perhaps some other type of dirty war type of retaliation, maybe. I mean, what are your thoughts? Well, they said that there will be a non-diplomatic response. So they're

clearly preparing some kind of counteraction of their own. Now, up to now, Putin has prohibited attacks on Zelensky in person. And I'm going to make a guess that that is going to stick. And Putin gave the reason why, which is that from Putin's point of view, from Russia's point of view, Zelensky is the ideal leader for Ukraine to have at this time, in the sense that he is unpopular with most of the global community outside Europe. He has a fraught relationship with Donald Trump. He makes contradictory and illogical orders that he forces the military to carry out. From Russia's point of view, up to this time, up to this moment, he has been a asset for

them rather than a problem. So for that reason, up to this time, the Russian. have avoided taking steps directly against Zelensky himself. And I think also that the Russians probably are going to weigh in the balance, whether it really is a good idea for them to violate the taboo against organizing the assassinations of foreign leaders in this kind of way. But, you know, they don't inform me about what their plans is. They might be coming after Selensky.

I don't personally think so, but anyway, but they will take action against other decision-making centers, as they call them in Kiev. Kiev's air defenses have essentially collapsed. Kiev's ability to resist attacks by the Russians are diminishing. I would expect to see before very long attacks on the big intelligence facilities, the Ministry of Defense, all of those. centers in Kiev itself. And of course, the Russians have the means to do it now. They have Kinjal hypersonic missiles. They've also got the Arashnik, which has now entered service,

and just entered service a few days ago. So an attack of that kind is now real possibility. And of course, if the Russians believe and have reason to believe and have evidence that some Western country and its operatives were involved in this attack, it is not impossible that they will take action against the agents of that country in Ukraine itself and perhaps, perhaps just possibly outside it. So there is that. But the other thing that the Russians are going to do is that they're going to milk this for all its worth. I mean, from a Russian point of view, I remember you're making this very point in a program we did about a week ago. From a Russian point of view, Istanbul plus the set of demands that Putin laid out on the 14th of June 2024 are becoming obsolete.

They're becoming overtaken by events. We've had further Russian advances. Putin himself basically hinted, or said, he didn't hear, he actually all but said in a recent meeting with his generals that there's really no point now in asking the Ukrainians to withdraw from territories because we're about to capture those territories anyway. So Istanbul Plus is out of date. So this gives the Russians the opportunity to move finally beyond Istanbul Plus. And to tell the Americans, look, Istanbul Plus was last year. We're now here. We're now here this year.

All this time has passed. The Ukrainians didn't take the opportunities. You gave them. They didn't take the opportunities we gave them. Now the moment has come for us to harden our demands. Maybe we want permanent buffer zones in Kharkiv and Nehropotrovsk regions. And maybe also, maybe also our agreement that Ukraine join the European Union is no longer something that you should assume we are prepared to agree to any further. This has been something

that Putin has been repeatedly challenged about by Russian journalists who've obviously been put up to do it by other members of the Russian political elite. It's a very unpopular concession to the Ukrainians by the Russians. I mean, it's very unpopular in Russia. And there may be more and more people who say, like, this is the moment, when we want to take that away. And that overarching issue here is something else, which is that the Russians have been very carefully, very calculatedly, moving towards what is clearly a demand for regime change in Kiev. and certainly for the permanent departure from the scene of Vladimir Zelensky and all of the officials who are connected to him.

And I cannot imagine now that this war will end in any circumstance, that the Russians will be prepared to end this war, in any circumstance where Vladimir Zelensky remains either president of Ukraine or in any form involved in the political scene there. So I would expect at some point the Russians to come to the Americans and say, look, we all agree there must be elections in Ukraine. We all agree that there must be a return to legality in Ukraine. But there are certain political leaders who are unacceptable to us. Vladimir Zelensky is one. He's clearly not just a politician, but practically a gangster. So we won't accept him. We won't accept all of the people that he works with, Danov, Podoliac, Kermak, any of those.

We want a complete clear route in Kiev. And when there's going to be elections, these people cannot stand. Can you just clarify the difference between or the nuance between Putin saying we're not going to go after Zelensky? We're not going to try a decapitation strike or try to take out Zelensky because he's exactly the type of leader that we want at this moment because he is such a clown. And the Russian desire to move towards some sort of a regime change of Zelensky going forward? And we'll wrap up the video there. Yeah, I mean, the point about having Zelensky in charge during the war is an advantage for the Russians, because he is mismanaging the war and he is mismanaging the diplomacy as well connected to the war.

That's why we had this disastrous meeting. It was a disastrous meeting, by the way, and the meeting in Miami between Trump and Zelensky was for Zelensky and Zelensky disastrous. No doubt about this. So, keep him in place whilst the war is ongoing. But the moment we arrive at a situation where we have achieved our principal objectives and we want to move towards peace, we absolutely cannot afford to have a person like Zelensky act, in Kiev, either as president or still politically influential, because he will attempt to restart the war all over again, and he will put us in permanent danger if he is still there or still in any form of control. The Russians are happy to keep Zelensky president while Ukraine

is at war, but they absolutely do not want Zelensky as president when Ukraine is. Ukraine returns to peace. For one thing, as the Russians had said, in fact, I think it was Riyabkuf, the Russians want a long-term reconciliation with Ukraine. And that cannot happen while Zelensky is still around. All right. We'll end the video there, the durand. Dot loopholes.com. We are on X and Rumble and Telegram. Also on Substack. So look for us on Substack as well. And go to the Duran Shop, pick up some merch. Link is in the description box down below. Take care.