The Duran Podcast - Russia Will Use "Full Force"; Kiev Bridge Panic as Merz Rushes to Zelensky

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Russia Will Use "Full Force"; Kiev Bridge Panic as Merz Rushes to Zelensky

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening with Ukraine and the panic over the strikes on bridges in Kiev, the southern bridge and the northern bridge. What is the situation, Alexander, with Ukraine? We also have Mertz making a surprise visit to Kiev. Yeah. I'll call it a surprise visit to Kiev. He brought money, weapons, but no EU fast track. your thoughts? Well, I think

you fast track for Ukraine. You fast track for Ukraine. He didn't bring enough money for Zelensky but no amount of money is ever enough for Zelensky as we know and weapons with promises of weapons, kinds of weapons

I suspect that at this moment in time the Ukrainians don't need unless he's going to give them the tourist missile which will come to in a moment because this is a real possibility I think. But anyway, let's start with the situation in Kiev. There is actual panic in Kiev. I mean, I'm hearing this from all sorts of places. This is something which the Ukrainians were apparently frightened of and have been afraid of since the beginning of the war. And it's now happening.

And it's happening in a way that is very unexpected to them. I mean, they expected big missiles, bombers, something of that kind, targeting the Kiev bridges. And instead, what they're getting are these Geran four and five drones. And they're proving very difficult to shoot down. They're highly maneuverable, it seems. They are obviously controlled by ground controllers. There's speculation that there are agents in Kiev, that are Russian agents in Kiev, who, are helping with the guidance. I think that's most unlikely myself. But anyway, apparently there's a lot of talk about this in Kiev. The key thing to understand is that the only way to cross the NEPA from one part of Kiev to the other is via bridge.

I had assumed that there were tunnels under the NEPA, metro tunnels or other tunnels. it turns out that there are none. There may be some tunnels built at some point, but if so, these are tunnels that only, you know, high-ranking people can walk across. You can't send motor vehicle traffic and transport traffic across it, heavy vehicle traffic across this way. trains cannot use these small tunnels assuming they even exist and the severance of the bridges

therefore cuts one part of Kiev off from another it means that the entire city is divided into two now that is one problem but there is a further problem on top of this which is that we've been talking lots over the last four years about the Dnieper bridges, and there's been all the discussions and speculations about why the Russians haven't been attacking the Dnieper bridges. It turns out that these bridges in Kiev were far and away the most important, that the bulk, not all, but say 60%, 50, 60% of the equipment, that the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine was used.

using was being transported across the Nipa bridges in Kiev itself. The New York Times has done a article which talks about the logistic nightmare that the closure of these bridges is going to cause. The key word here is logistic because logistic can be used obviously for, you know, civilian industry, civilian economies and things of this kind. But it's primarily a military term. So this is a critical situation for the Ukrainian military. And the article in the New York Times also said that it's going to be very, very difficult to reroute traffic through other bridges. Bridges to the north exist, but they're relatively small.

Bridges to the south exist as well, but one of them is 50 kilometers away. So it's a big diversion of traffic. And the further south you go, the closer anywhere you get to the positions the Russians already have. An interesting admission, by the way, because it gives you an insight that even the New York Times quietly knows that the Russians are in places where officially, according to the Ukrainians, they might not be. So anyway, this is a crisis. It is a crisis for the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine. And it comes on top of all of the other crises that are building up in Ukraine, the closure of the black seaports, the attacks on the railway systems,

the attacks on the gasoline stations, the attacks on the warehouses, the attacks on the data centers, all of this is now cumulative. And these attacks on the bridges, which so far the Ukrainians haven't been able to stop, are compounding all of the other problems and are adding an extra dimension. and that this is creating panic in Keough, you can absolutely see. I mean, you can see it first and foremost from the kind of comments that Zelensky has been making. And I'm not going to reproduce them because some of them are unbelievably wild, but he's been making many, many more threats against the Russians over the last few hours,

threats which go even beyond some of the threats that he's made recently and before. there's again talk about attacking the Crimea bridge, which the Ukrainians have tried to attack many times and have hit on occasions. But of course, the Crimea bridge is nowhere near as important for the Russians as these bridges are for the Ukrainians. And besides, the Crimea bridge is properly defended as these bridges in Kiev are not. and well there's also talk in Kiev of trying to create alternatives pontoon bridges and other types of bridges that's not going to work first of all if you do create these bridges they can only carry a fraction of the traffic that proper road bridges use and they are vulnerable themselves so this is a crisis and there doesn't seem to be any solution to them and they trundled out these heavy gap-ard

German anti-aircraft tanks onto the bridges, but they are not succeeding in shooting down the trance. Yeah. The Russian Ministry of Defense actually put out a statement saying that the attacks will escalate. Yeah. And blame Zelensky. A very rare statement. That type of statement is usually something you do not see coming out of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Usually the MOD is just putting out numbers or statistics.

or something like that, for them to come out with a statement and to say blame Zelensky for what is happening. Absolutely. Pretty interesting statement from the MOD. Before you comment, Peskov as well has pretty much mirrored what the Ministry of Defense put out in their statement. He said that Russia will continue to escalate. They will fulfill the objectives of the SMO.

They will fight for every inch of the four Oblasts. Absolutely. For Dombas, every single inch he said they will fight for it. He said that's Russian territory. That was his statement, which Peskov is speaking on behalf of Putin. This was relentless language, both from the defense ministry and from Peskof. And Peskov said something else, which I think was buried within key statement. but which people are not picking up.

He said that Russia will use full force, full force. Now, and those are his own words. Remember a couple of months ago that he said that this is, we've gone beyond the bounds of an SMO. This is actual war. On this program, on this channel, we discussed that. We said that this is now looking as if the Russians are going beyond the terms of the SMO. Some people push back against that. They said that the Russians wouldn't announce something like

this in the two interviews that Peskov gave. We, on the contrary said that everything that Peskov says is clearly worked out with Putin in advance and should be taken extremely seriously. Now the Russians are saying full force. So what that has to do. to me. What it obviously means is that the restrictions that were placed on the Russian military as to how they should prosecute the campaign right at the beginning where the SMO was, you know, launched back in February 2020, that those restrictions are being lifted. It's not what Zelensky says that there are no rules, that the Russians will attack anything and everything. Obviously not. They are still circumscribed by the general rules of war, which Peskov was also careful to say

that the Russians are going to abide by. But the Russians haven't just been restricted by the rules of war. They have been restricted by the rules of the SMO. And it is now clear that these are being relaxed and we are talking about a war now. In other words, attacks on bridges, attacks on warehouses, attacks on power plants and other infrastructure, blockades of the Black Sea. And it is only a question of time before we also see attacks on the decision-making centers as well. This clearly now is coming. When they use the word like full force, you should take it seriously. Mertz in Kiev? Mouths in Kiev. Well, I think what triggered this trip was two things. Firstly, given the

language that's coming out of Kiev, given Zelensky's language, I think that Mitz rushed to Kiev basically to prevent everything falling apart there. I mean, he must have seen to him. distance, the things were close to falling apart. He probably also wants to see for himself what the situation is. And I suspect also he wants to come, or at least get Zelensky to dial down some of his rhetoric. The Russian Defence Ministry statement that you mentioned actually refers to statements that Zelensky is making some of these threats that Zelensky is making against the Russians. and it's taking them around and saying, well, Zelensky is threatening to do this. So that justifies us Russians doing back to the Ukrainians even more.

So it's obviously, it's rhetorical. I mean, I don't know how much serious difference it makes. But from a Western point of view, trying to get Zelensky to dial down might be a good thing. They've never managed it up to now, and I don't think they will. but maths might have come with that. But I think he also would have come, as I said, to keep the Ukrainians going, to keep them fighting. And he came with promises. He came with money, a billion euros, a bit more than a billion euros, actually.

And promises are weapons. And here we come to the question of what weapons? Because Zelensky, amongst these various statements, was talking about this FP-N, ballistic missile that can reach Moscow. He was in effect demanding, insisting, where is this missile? Why haven't we had it yet? And then he said, we're going to get this in October. And I wonder when I said to myself, this is impossible.

You can't develop a missile at this kind of speed and it hasn't even been tested. Well, of course, you don't need to test it if it already exists. And it's in fact the tourist missile. Now, the Taurus is not a ballistic missile, which is what Zelensky has been talking about. The Taurus is an air-launched cruise missile. But, well, hey-ho, what's the difference exactly? Probably most people won't care. You stick a Ukrainian randle on it.

You claim that it's this new FB9 missile. You can pretend that the talk about a ballistic missile was simply to confirm. fuse and muddle the Russians. You get some tourist missiles rushed to Ukraine and you start launching them by the end of October. And I do have to say, I wonder, I do wonder whether this is what this is all about, whether this was the practical purpose behind Metz's visit. I've been thinking about this overnight. And it seems to me this is the thing that makes the most sense. Yeah, that's what I thought as well. No doubt that Russia greenlit merts's safe passage to Kiev because it does merge a whole lot of damage.

Yeah. From a media perspective to have them in Kiev giving money and weapons. And I imagine the Russians are fully aware of the fact that the tourist missile is coming. Yes. So I mean, you know, it's just a matter of time, giving the panic that we see in the collective West. Yes. Mertz going to Kiev, probably to just discuss the tourists, maybe to tie up some loose ends. He could have probably done it via telephone call as well.

So I imagine he was also there to just kind of get a feel as to what's happening. Probably on behalf of people like Black Rock or three-letter agencies in the U.S. So what I'm sure they told Mertz, just get on the freaking train, go to Kiev and see for yourself what's going on. There's a lot of money and investments and all kinds of things tied up in Prochut Ukraine, as well as tied up with Zelensky, and Zelensky seems to be losing it. He is saying that he's going to retaliate very hard against Russia. They got a hold of some sort of document, the intel agencies, which claim that Russia

has changed its, they've changed their doctrine towards, towards Kiev and towards Ukraine. And Ukraine is going to retaliate against oil refineries. He also put a number out there, which is claiming that 51% of oil refineries and Russia have been completely destroyed or have been destroyed to a level that it's causing significant damage to the Russian economy and to Russian military logistics. What are your thoughts there? Well, I mean, first of all, or, let's put to start with about Zelensky's numbers, which are fantastic. They threw out, yeah, it's 30%, it's 40%. It's big, sometimes they say 60%, 70%.

Exactly, exactly. I mean, let's just do with Merz's visit first, because actually it's quite interesting event, because he did it on Germany's National Day, and Alice Vidal of the IF Day is all over it. She says he's rushed on Germany's National Day. Where does the Chancellor of Germany go? He goes to Kiev, he meets with,

Zelensky. He's giving more money. German taxpayers money to Zelensky and to the Ukrainians. Problems are building up here. They're getting worse. Vidal was all over this visit. And, well, we've actually had opinion polls now coming out in Germany. So these show the IFDA on 30% and the CDU on 18%. Exactly. He's plunging. I mean, and we've had circumstances now where the, where, um, mouths himself has been booed and tackled and things of this kind. So, I mean, it is an absolute, I mean, you're absolutely right. The Russians almost certainly would have been tipped off that maths was coming.

And they would have let him go because they probably understand. In fact, I'm sure they do understand that in domestic. political terms in Germany itself, this is a shambles. Now, when I heard Merz was going to Kiev, it did seem to me this was such a bad idea politically that I did wonder whether in his own imagination, he thought you might pull off something like what Kennedy did in 1961 after the Berlin Wall went up. You know, Kennedy went and did a great speech. near the Berlin Wall and it raised morale in Berlin and all of that. And it undoubtedly enhanced Kennedy's position in the United States.

Well, Mertz thankfully didn't try because he's no JFK. I mean, he's not going to be able. He would never have been able to pull that one off. But I did wonder whether that was partly what he was about. But absolutely, he obviously, there was obviously a quick discussion. there was an agreement that somebody should go. Mattz rushed to Kiev. And I think there is something else.

There's another reason why Mattz probably was sent to Kiev at this time. Because we've discussed in program after program going all the way back to May that the Russians have one of their objectives is to get the West to leave Kiev, to get the embassies and the diplomats to leave Kiev. And, well, we had a report in the Guardian in Britain, in which two European diplomats, and there must have been European, told the Guardian that though the Europeans do not want to leave Kiev, the situation in Kiev is deteriorating,

and plans, contingency plans for them to leave, are being made. And on top of all of that, that Russian statement that you mentioned, the Defence Ministry statement, actually again reminded Western officials that it is dangerous to stay in Kiev. And there was an even more forthright statement by the Russian foreign. foreign ministry reminding everybody that the Russians since May have been telling Westerners to leave Kiev. And the defense ministry statement, if you read it very carefully, it basically also says that they shouldn't just leave Kiev, they shouldn't even go there. In other words, travel to Kiev. by train, from this moment on, is going to become increasingly difficult and increasingly dangerous.

They might be willing to allow someone like Mouths to go, but it cannot be guaranteed for much longer that the Russians will allow others, other Western officials to go to Kiev. And probably, if Russian officials do start trying to travel to Kiev, They contact the Russians and ask for permission to go to Kiev, I am going to make a guess that the Russians are going to impose conditions on those visits. They're going to say, you're only going to stay there for so many hours. You're not going to make any public statements. You're going to start seeing those kind of things coming from the Russians. Obviously, all this is going to happen privately.

but the Russians are taking steps to shut the movement of Westerners to Kiev down, exactly as we have been saying. And one of the reasons, surely, why Matt's went to Kiev now, and why the German embassy in Kiev said that for the moment they have every intention of staying is that they don't want Zelensky to think. You don't want the Ukrainians to think that the West is about to leave Kiev and that Kiev is being abandoned. Because if that were to happen now, on top of all of the other panic, we could actually see a collapse. There would be a mass exodus of people.

If the Westerners were leaving, there would be a conclusion by many people in Kiev, that everything is about to implode and fall apart. So I think that was also part of the reasons for this visit. but to be clear, the Russians are saying they're going to intensify their attacks. They have apparently a large stoppiler missiles. We can see that the drones are, the Ukrainians can't shoot them down. Sooner or later, the Westerners are going to leave. More and more of the civilian population is going to leave. And judging from the language that Zelensky himself is using,

he is, I would say, probably himself now becoming very concerned and alarmed about his own safety and position. And of course, he's going to have to make some very interesting decisions about whether he's going to stay in Kiev as well. And we will see how that plays out over the next few weeks. So that's one thing I did want to say. So Leski's in trouble, Alexander. Let me read you the exact quote and wrap up the video. from the Russian Ministry of Defense, or at least the part where they mentioned Zelensky, which is very rare to see coming out of the Ministry of Defense.

People in Ukraine should blame only the head of the Kiev regime for this. It is Zelensky who bears full personal and political responsibility for it. They're talking about the strikes in Kiev and the escalation and all of these things. Personal and political responsibility for. the strikes into Kiev and the escalation. Correct. They're throwing it all on Zeletsky. Indeed.

Indeed. He must be seen... That's the military. That's the military. Exactly. He must be seeing this now. I mean, I'm not saying this is true, by the way. But he probably sees this as the Russians drawing a target around him.

So bear in mind for himself, he must be thinking and worrying about the situation. now and notice that again in that ministry statement, defense ministry statement, they never called him the president of Ukraine. They don't use any official title. They called him the leader of the Kiev regime. And what is almost insulting, they refer him in various places in that statement as V full stop Zelensky, which is, if you know Russian naming conventions, well, it's a In this kind of statement, it comes across as, well, frankly, almost rude. Yeah, it could also be seen as a message to the Europeans, as a message to the United States, the Trump administration. Maybe even a message to the opposition in Ukraine.

Maybe even a message to some of the military opposition or the military forces. that are not so hot on Zelensky. Maybe it's a message to all of these people as well. That's a very good point indeed, actually. Get Zelensky out of here. Yes, that's a very, very good point as well, actually. And perhaps one of the reasons why Mouths went to Kiev is precisely in order to shore up Zelensky himself. Because for the moment, I still get the sense that the Europeans want Zelensky to remain in charge in Kiev.

They worry that if they start replacing leaders now, if they start reshuffling leaders now, particularly at this moment, the whole House of Cards could start to fall apart. So it may be that there is an element of that too, but that is of course speculation, but it is reasonable speculation because of the very point that you have just made, that the Russians may be signaling to the military. Look, look at who is causing all these problems for you, not just the civilian population, but the Ukrainian military too. Real quick to wrap up the video, trilateral meeting, end of October is what Zelensky is

signaling, United States, Russia and Ukraine. He said he was speaking with Ritchkoff and Kushner. They're trying to put that together. Yeah, I'm sure. The Russian position on this has always been actually completely consistent from the first day of the special military operation. And they've never changed this. They're prepared to sit down and talk. That doesn't mean that they're prepared to make any substantive concessions. And it certainly does not mean that they are prepared to agree to a ceasefire. And of course,

what Zelensky wants, he doesn't want talks with the Russians. He wants a ceasefire. He wants the fighting to stop. So in fact, a tripartite meeting doesn't serve his purpose unless he actually gets a ceasefire. In fact, last year, he called off the tripartite discussions that were happening were the Russians, precisely because they weren't leading to a ceasefire. And that takes us back to Peskov's comments, the ones that you alluded to. to earlier in this program, because Peskov says, we are not going to stop. We want to achieve all our objectives. There is not going to be a stop, even if there's a fraction of a millimeter of our territory still occupied by Ukraine. We will keep fighting. And he also made it clear

that all of the other, all of the other provisions of the, all the other demands of the Russians are making must be satisfied too. So there we are. All right, we will end it there. We are on locals, the durand.locals.com. We are on substack and also go to the Durandshop, pick up some merch. All those links are in the description box down below. Take care.