The Duran Podcast - Ukraine battlefield failures push Europe into desperate measures

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Ukraine battlefield failures push Europe into desperate measures

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is happening in Ukraine. We have come to the end of Zelensky's 40-day terror campaign that he announced on Russia. That has come to an end. What are the results of that 40-day campaign? And we have an interesting statement from Zilluzni saying that Ukraine is never going to get into NATO. Actually, Zaluzni is pushing for an evening. you army in this statement. I think that's his ankle. And we have a lot of activity on the front lines. So where do you want to begin? Well, let's start with Zelensky and his 40-day campaign to force

Russia to the negotiating table, in other words, to make it capitulate. It has ended in complete disaster. He has managed to get drones deep inside Russia. They have done damage. They've attacked refineries, as we know, but I've had more and more reports now that the situation with fuel inside Russia has stabilized, except in some, if you like, border regions, bordering Ukraine itself. He's attacked civilian facilities. He's just carried out another attack. The Ukrainians have carried out another drone attack on a holiday resort in the Black Sea, in the Krasnodar. Some people are saying that there was a nearby military industrial facility, but, well, if so, all I would say is that there's been many other attacks that clearly do seem

to be targeting more civilian facilities than military ones, the attacks on wild berries, being a case in point. He appears to have given instructions to his intelligence and security agencies to conduct attacks on Russian military officials inside Russia. We had the bomb attack on the Kudrinskaya restaurant in Moscow, which appears to have been an assassination attempt on a senior Russian Air Force officer. But the sum total of all of this is that Ukraine's situation has deteriorated. And what is frustrating is that, of course, we were talking about all of these deteriorations, the fact that things are getting not better for Ukraine, but worse for some time. And now it's becoming difficult to avoid acknowledging this. And we've had the start

of acceptance of this truth from even the West. and media as well. So major Russian breakthroughs on the front lines. The Russians now five kilometers from Slaviansk, the Russians storming Dobropilia, the Russians closing in on Rhechof, the Russians having just captured the key logistics hub and important village in Kharkov region, Bely Kolodis, which opens the way for the Russians to take control basically of the whole, of northeast Kharkov region, the Russians vitally having blockaded the Black Sea so that Ukraine is now landlocked country. And the Russians now conducting strikes with missiles and drones and bombs all over Ukraine on a far greater scale than anything that Ukraine has been able to do.

So Zelensky is no longer talking about bringing the Russians to the negotiating table. He's now talking again about a ceasefire, which of course the Russians have consistently rejected. And his arch rival, Zaluzni, is now making speeches. He made this speech to the Ukrainian ambassadors saying, let's forget about ever joining NATO. We're never going to join NATO. NATO anyway is stuck in the military philosophies of the Second World War. It is well past its technological sell-by-date. Our war, the war we've been fighting with the Russians, has moved far beyond it.

Let's completely forget about NATO. Zelensky, of course, has made joining NATO absolutely central for his entire policy, for Ukraine. What Zaluzni is saying is that Zelensky's got it all completely wrong. Make me president, I'm much more realistic. I want Ukraine. I will tell the Russians, Ukraine is not going to join NATO, and I will end the war on those terms. Yep, he's saying security guarantees with other European countries, and he's talking about an EU army. Of course he is. When you're drilled down to to his statements, that's what he's talking about. He actually says that NATO is going to need 12 years to get to half of the military capabilities of Russia, which was an interesting

statement from Zillusioni. NATO is stuck in a World War II doctrine, is what he said. Yes. Yes. As for the EU, of course, to be very clear about Zalusini, he is a Ukrainian nationalist. He's fingertips. He has pictures of bandera on his wall. The Russians would be extremely foolish to treat him as a viable negotiator partner. I don't think they will. He's also the man who, according to some reports, played a key role in the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines. So of course, he's not really looking for a negotiated resolution of the war on Russian terms. But he's talking about Ukraine no longer being in NATO. He's giving reasons, valid reasons, by the way, why Ukraine cannot be in NATO. And he's brought us back to the idea of an EU army ready in 12 years, but security guarantees.

And of course, those security guarantees must come ultimately from the United States. States. So it's not really a proposal that the Russians can accept, but you can see what he's doing. He's undermining, again, Zelensky's position. Yeah, he added that it would take the alliance about 12 years to adopt new standards to at least reach half the level of the Russian Federation. That's a direct quote. By the way, Zaluzni's speech has gone unreported here in Britain. he's the uk ambassador he's the ukraine ambassador to the uk is he exactly exactly what exactly does he do there anyway uh um engage in intrigues in kiev and enjoy his time here in london

is the young sir exactly exactly so uh the winter ceasefire this is this is the the top uh item on the agenda for the Collective West. When it comes to Ukraine, I'm seeing a lot of articles from U.S. media publications talking about a very hard winter ahead for Ukraine. The Patriot Interceptors did not come. They have not arrived. We actually have a statement from the U.S. ambassador to NATO saying that there's going to be no licensing agreement, at least not in the short term.

for Patriot defense systems to Ukraine. So that whole Patriot strategy completely failed. Zelensky's next idea, which is also failing, his new idea, is Starlink and Star Shield, more access to Elon Musk's Starlink so that he could hit targets in Russia, which are deeper inside of Russia. They can target, they can hit targets in Russia with greater precision and accuracy. That has also failed. Musk is not meeting, did not want to meet with Zelensky.

It doesn't look like that's going to go through. Where does this leave Zelensky this winter? What I think is going to happen, and Zelensky is going to be a major part of it, but the European governments are going to join in. They're going to make a massive diplomatic push for a ceaseful. fire and they're going to say that this is essential in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. And they're going to involve the United Nations Secretariat in this. They're going to threaten more war crime trials against Russian military officials who

continue to carry out orders. They're going to try to leverage as much diplomatic pressure as they can from the global south and from countries like China to try to get the Russians to agree to this ceasefire. They will push this with everything they have. I do think it's going to work. I think the days when that kind of strategy might have worked have gone long ago. But I think this is what we're going to see. I think also, by the way, the idea of deploying Western troops, to European troops, to Western Ukraine, to Adessa and to its regions. I think this is going to revive. I think Macron will be pushing this very hard over the next few months as he remains president

of France. So this is what they're going to do. They will move from the... narrative of euphoria, which to be clear is now dying, to a narrative of Russia creating a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine, of the need for the West to intervene in Ukraine, to protect civilians. And major push in the UN, in the Security Council, in the General Assembly, through the UN secretariat through all the various agencies to try to intimidate bully, frighten, isolate the Russians to get that ceasefire.

When you mean Europe, you mean ultimately the United States behind Europe. Absolutely. Because Europe doesn't have any power to push anything through the United Nations. No. It would have to have the support of the United States. Of course it would. And I can see the United States vetoing stuff in the Security Council, but also behind the scenes. pushing Europe to push these, to move these things forward as well. I can see the U.S. playing

a double role, preserving the narrative of neutral mediator while also pushing the Europeans to move forward with what you just said. Exactly. So I think that is coming. And I think this is probably what we're going to have to prepare for, because I think this is looming on the horizon, a diplomatic offensive on a scale we have never seen. And trying to involve more and more countries in it. As I said, I'm confident it will fail. Maybe they might even, this speech that Zaluzni has given,

maybe the British and the others were behind it to some extent. And they might also be looking for ways to bring in, Zalusinie, present him as an alternative negotiator, an alternative person with whom the Russians can negotiate with, say that all of this, you see, all of these things are now being sorted out. You know, the Russians could talk to Zillusionis, Zilluzni, seems to be ruling out NATO membership. The Russians, on the contrary, seem to be intent on provoking a humanitarian in catastrophe, that shows how brutal and ruthless they are, and using all of the agencies, all the instruments of the United Nations and the diplomatic system in order, as I said,

to get the war, to bring the wall to an end. Boots on the ground without the United States, because the United States would never send boots on the ground. No, but you're going to see. Behind the scenes, they'll support it, and they'll push for it, behind the scenes. But the public statements that they'll make, if they even make a public statement, they'll reject such an idea. Absolutely. Well, there'll be visits to the White House.

There'll be Macroix going off to the White House, trying to talk to Trump, trying to tell him, look, there's this catastrophe playing out in Ukraine. We need to send our troops in. We need your support. We'll have all of that going on, all at the same time. We are going to be, we're going to see. we're going to see a very, very active autumn, but I don't think in the end it's going to make any difference. And incidentally, I think one reason why the Americans,

it's not just Elon Musk, are not so keen on Starlink being used in the way that Zelensky wants, is that there's growing evidence that the Russians are now becoming increasing successful in jamming Starlink. And I think that the Americans are becoming sensitive and worried about this and are worrying that if this continues to have much longer, Starlink itself is going to start to face serious problems. The Russians doing all of that, even as their own system, the Razavet, the rival to Starlink, the Russian rival to Starlink, is now taking shape. And there's been lots of articles in the media now, the Russian side of the media,

confirming what we have been speculating about on these programs, which is that Razvette is already usable. It is already active within Ukraine itself. It doesn't provide round-the-clock coverage, but it provides enough coverage to make a difference. and its abilities, its reach are growing with each new launch of more satellites to strengthen the array. Right. Starlink. Star Shield is the military part of Starlink. Exactly. Exactly.

If the Ukrainians were to be given access to that, would be the act of one ally towards another, just so. It would be the Ukrainians being integrated into a U.S. military communication system. There's a reason Musk did not meet Zelensky. Exactly. When Zolensky was pushing for a meeting and begged Trump to get him that meeting, it's obvious. They don't want to open up. I mean, they already gave Ukraine enough access to Starlink. They don't want to open it up further.

Exactly. Yeah. Just a final question. if the Europeans do decide to go into Ukraine, who would it be? It would be the French and the British. The British would be a very difficult position because one senses that he's not enthusiastic about this idea. But can he really walk back commitments that Stama has already made for him?

Any other countries outside the French and the British? I can't imagine anybody really keen to send their troops to Ukraine to take on the Russians. No, I think the polls have made it very clear that they are not interested. And I think they said this over several, some time now. The Baltic states obviously would be in, but then they could provide very little in terms of capability. Maybe the sweets who have a, you know, tough army supposedly, but a small one, relatively small one, I think in Germany, the response, if any, proposal were made to deploy German troops to Ukraine would be overwhelmingly negative.

And I do think the political system at the moment feels strong enough to face down that kind of response. So it would be Britain and France and a few other countries joining in for the right, but ultimately be the British and the French. Who did the British have to? I mean, what can the British send? 25,000 men is their entire infantry force. About 5,000 men? I think that's much more realistic than the 10,000 that some are the same. France, probably a few more. To do what, Alex? I mean, I just can't see it happen. What would they do?

Five thousand? Say you have 5,000 here, 10,000 there. What would they possibly be able to accomplish? Nothing. Just to act as a tripwire? Well, yes. The idea would be get them into Ukraine, get some sort of American commitment to back them, when the Russians attack them, come running to the United States and ask the United States for help. We've discussed this in many previous programs. It's an attempt to lure the United States into a direct confrontation with Russia. Certainly, that's Macron's intention. Yeah, okay We will end the video there The durand.com We're on X, we're on Rumble,

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