The Duran Podcast - Ukraine energy system smashed. Biden demands Russian assets

Episode Date: April 14, 2024

Ukraine energy system smashed. Biden demands Russian assets The Duran: Episode 1882

All right, Alexander, let's do an update on what is happening in Ukraine. And I think the best place to start, I believe the best place to start is with the attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which is devastating Ukraine. Harkov, Kiev. They hit a big power plant in Kiev, the Russians the other day. what do you make of these strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure? Very different than what we saw a year ago when Russia was testing the energy grid of Ukraine. Profoundly different. I think before I just turn to that subject, I think the first thing to say is that the overall story is that Ukraine is being smashed.

It's been smashed in terms of its energy infrastructure. It's been smashed on the full. front lines. It's been smashed in the air. Its air defense system is collapsing. It's losing its artillery at a scorching rate. I mean, this is, I mean, we're now literally in a situation where we have a boxing match now between a heavyweight and a lightweight. And as you can imagine, the lightweight is being absolutely knocked at pieces. That that's the overall story of, you know, what's going on in Ukraine at the moment. But anyway, let's turn to the energy system.

You're absolutely correct. This is completely different from what we saw a year ago. A year ago, the Russians were launching attacks on the energy system, and they had two objectives. One was to deplete Ukraine's air defense system, which is very big, very sophisticated, and it was a Soviet legacy, but it still worked well. And it was based around the S-300.

system and it was successful. That campaign forced the Ukrainians to use lots of air defense missiles to intercept Russian missiles and the result was that by the spring of last year, Ukraine was very short of air defense missiles and the Americans and the Germans and the Norwegians stepped in and they provided them with some air defense missiles but as we'll see in a moment, nowhere near enough. That was one objective. The other objective was to find out how the energy system works prior to a full-scale attack upon it. The important thing is that last year in 2022, 2023, the Russians were not attacking the power stations themselves. Now they are attacking the power stations. They're knocking out one power station after another.

And the result is catastrophic because though the Russians are not attacking the nuclear power stations, which provide sufficient electricity, electric power, for Ukraine to continue to function on a day-to-day basis for people in cities to have some electric power, There is no, not going to be enough electric power to cover surges, to absorb needs for industry. There have to be big reductions in electric power. But the other thing was that because the Russians in the previous attack last year discovered how to attack the distribution systems, they are now able to basically shut down electric power over any part of Ukraine that they want. Because the power stations that service individual regions of Ukraine are being destroyed

and the electric power from the power stations can be interrupted at any time by cutting off these distribution points. So it's absolutely devastating. It is the complete dismantling of the whole energy infrastructure. It means that if the Russians want to black out of Kharkov or Dessa or Zaporosia, they're now moving into the position where they can do that. So we saw that last year's offensive actually was carefully designed to prepare for this year's. There's no air defense system to repel attacks.

The Russians are able to destroy whatever power station they want. And the Russians know. how to cut off any part of Ukraine that they want to cut off from the electricity system, and they can do it at any time. Right. What do you make of the arguments from various journalists, even journalists on the ground in Ukraine who are West, collective West journalists, who are saying that, yes, Ukraine is out of air defense.

They're out of weapons and most weapons in general. And yes, the governments of the collective West, they have said that they don't have any more air defense systems or missiles to give to Ukraine. But we know that collective West countries, they do have missiles in stock. They do have patriots in stock. They just don't want to hand everything over. What do you make about those? Just to set it up, because Oletsky is the entire Zeletsky administration, they are now demanding. Kulebah said he's now demanding that the collective West give over Patriot systems.

So, I mean, we have a bit of a, you know, you have someone like Bearbach saying they're exhausted, and then you have someone like Kuleb saying, no, we demand air defense systems. So we have two different statements coming out. Yeah. This is Julian Rebke, also the built siton and others, the same. Yeah, many. Many people are making this argument or this claim. It is an exercise in, you know, the lunacy.

Give Ukraine absolutely everything. Strip yourself entirely bare. Just give Ukraine whatever it wants, whatever it needs or whatever it says it needs. You know, Germany, France, Britain. the United States as well, don't worry because, you know, if you win in Ukraine, Russia will collapse and, you know, you won't need to worry about anything. I mean, it is, it's not a strategy. It's a talking point. Let me make it that absolutely clear. I mean, it's not, this is not something that functions in the real world. If the West starts to do that, the things are going to happen.

Firstly, the Russians have now shown that they are able to destroy Ukraine's air defences. They depleted them massively last year, as we saw. They can do that again. They now also have a grown stock of hypersonic missiles, and they have complete dominance in the air. Any further Western air defense systems that are sent to Ukraine, will be destroyed in short order. Now, this hasn't been widely enough reported in the West. You do find the odd admission squirreled away. The Patriot missile systems have been destroyed.

Other missile systems have been destroyed by the Russians. The fact is, the West doesn't have huge stocks of air defence missiles. Its production of air defence missiles is very limited, around 550 Patriot systems a year, Patriot missiles a year, not systems, Patriot missiles a year. Nowhere near enough to cover Ukraine's needs. And the idea that the West should just give everything it's got to Ukraine and leave itself with nothing at all,

even if you discount a threat from Russia, well, we know the world can be a difficult place, It's absolutely reckless. It is crazy. The West is supposed to be re-arming itself. And what these people are demanding is that it disarm itself and send what it has to Ukraine so that it can be destroyed. Now, I think deep down these people like Julian Rebke

and Dimitro Kuleber even probably understand that. I'm sure Röbke does what Kulebos says. I have no idea what he thinks he's talking about. But what they're basically doing is that they're engaging again in narrative construction. They know that what they're demanding isn't realistic. It can't be done. If even someone like Annalina Bebock tells you, it can't be done, then it can't be done. And what they're preparing for is for the situation where Ukraine collapses.

And they turn around and say, well, it wasn't because Ukraine didn't fight strongly enough. It was just because you didn't give them enough missiles. Bingo. Exactly. My philosophy on this very quickly is that if the collective West, if NATO, if any country, the collective West could give weapons, could send troops into Ukraine knowing that they would defeat Russia, whatever, they would have done it. If they had ammunition to give, they would have done it. They wouldn't be waiting for money. They wouldn't be waiting for Congress to approve anything.

They wouldn't be saying missiles are exhausted. If they knew that they could defeat Russia, they would be doing it or they would have done it. Absolutely. It includes money. It includes military on the ground. Whatever, yeah. I mean, if we're coming back to what you said about Congress, I mean, you know, people get utterly over-obsessed with the $61 billion that, you know, stuck so far in Congress. If the problem was not weapons, if there were, you know, lots and lots of weapons around, European governments would buy them. They'd be coming to the United States themselves and buying the shells and buying the missiles and buying the missiles and buying the air. raft, buying the tanks and the drones and all of those things. The Europeans aren't constrained

in the way that the Americans are. They could just do this. Europe is rich. It can find $60 billion dollars or its EU equivalent. Look at how much they spend on other things. But of course, they don't because they know that those things just aren't there. You know, we mustn't let ourselves run away. and, you know, get, accept and get trapped into these narratives. They don't accept. The weapons don't exist in sufficient quantities, but no one in authority wants to admit the truth, which is the Russians, have completely beaten the West in the armaments race.

This isn't something that anybody wants to acknowledge. And so the result is that, you know, they come up with all these, you know, far-fetched stories and explanations about, you know, it's Mike Johnson, it's Schultz tethering, it's Biden, unwilling to take on Putin. These narratives have been constructed in order to evade the truth, which is that the West has lost or is losing in Ukraine. It's humiliating for the Western for NATO that Russia has defeated them so decisively on the battlefield economically, diplomatically. They can't admit it. But I will correct you on one thing. The West was, Europe was rich.

I mean, we are absolutely. This is a point that I want to make. They've shown repeatedly that they're prepared to squeeze their people in order to find the money to find Ukraine. So, I mean, you know, they may not be rich, but I mean, they have enough money. for that. If they have no money, I was afraid of the else. I mean, given the priority they've given to this thing, I mean, they could find it. But of course, they aren't looking for it because they know perfectly well that the ammunition and the guns and all of that aren't there. They aren't there in the US. They aren't there in Europe. I was going to say the same thing. If Europe had to go, if the EU had to go into every single bank, if it was just a matter of buying the ammo, the ammo, if that's was just sitting there and they just needed 50 billion to buy it and then hand it to Ukraine, the European Union would go into every single bank in every single country and they would

take all the money out and they would buy the weapons, believe me. And they would have no problem bankrupting their entire population to do it. They just don't have the weapons. They don't have the weapons to give. So what do you make of Putin's statement to Lukashenko? You talked about this in your video update yesterday, but what do you make of Putin's statement to Lukashenko, where he said that we are hitting Ukraine's electric grid, their energy infrastructure, because Ukraine was hitting our oil refineries. Now, let me just say one quick thing. How dumb of a leader is Zelensky to have given Putin this opening? Because we know that Russia was going to go after their energy infrastructure. But because Zelensky is such a dumb military strategist and such a dumb leader, he decided to send these drones pinprick attacks into Russia's oil refineries.

And what did he do? In my opinion, he gave Putin the perfect opening, the perfect excuse to say, well, they were hitting our refineries. So we decided to hit their electric grid. What do you make of those statements? You're absolutely right. I mean, this is clearly a well-prepared and well-planned operation that the Russians are conducting in Ukraine. But of course, it does have some political awkwardness about it. The Russians have not completely cut off electricity to the civilian population. People can still

put on light and they can still cook and do things like that. There's enough power for that. Also, as Putin was very careful to say, they've done this in the summer. So it's not the freezing temperatures in winter. What happens when winter comes, by the way, he didn't say. But the point is this. He was able to say, look, we're, you know, we're totally reasonable people. We don't want to hurt the civilian population, which is why we do it in summer. And the only reason why we've been obliged to do this is because Ukraine has been attacking our energy system, our oil refineries. Now, I've just had an email from someone who is in Russia, who is knowledgeable about these matters. He's told me exactly the point that I've been making program after program.

There is no visible sign of any shortages of petrol or diesel in Russia. The situation with the supply of these is still completely smooth. The attacks on the oil refiner is just pinpricks. If Zelensky thought that they were going to make any difference to Russia's economic situation or to its war effort, then he's a fool. Well, we know he is, but anyway, it's further proof that he's a fool. But exactly as you've said, he has given the Russians the perfect excuse for their far more devastating, immeasurably more powerful,

immeasurably more consequential attacks on Ukraine's energy system. I mean, it was an idiotic thing to do. that achieved nothing, has achieved nothing, but one which has given the Russians further political cover above and beyond what they already have. By the way, I think this is why the Americans are trying to persuade the Ukrainians to stop doing this. It's not because they really believe that this activity is going to result in increases in oil prices. It's because they know that it's a stupid policy that is completely counterproductive for Ukraine, and which is put giving the Russians a good talking point

that they can make an international fora like the United Nations. Even Lloyd Austin understands this is a stupid policy. That says a lot when Lloyd Austin understands that this is a dumb policy, then yeah, it's a dumb policy. Yeah, so let's turn to Zelensky. He's falling apart. At least that's my read of Zelensky. The other day, he said that Ukraine must get into the EU or open up talks with the EU in June.

He was meeting with Duda the other day, and he said that Ukraine must get into NATO. He said that Ukraine is their greatest achievement would be to destroy the Crimea Bridge. Dumphing to say. And a new counteroffensive in 2025, he's promising a new great. counteroffensive in 2025 if if the collective West will give him money for $61 billion. So, and of course, and finally, you can talk also about the mobilization law as well. We could probably save that for last because I think that's a big deal. Anyway, let's talk about Zelensky's losing his mind a bit for a lot.

And then we can segue over to the mobilization law. No, you're absolutely right. These are all the comments of a desperate man. I mean, he is becoming increasingly desperate. And as desperate people do, he is becoming more and more demanding. I mean, there's a whining quality to all of this. Give me all your missiles. Put me in the EU at once. Make me a member of NATO immediately. You know, I deserve all of these things and give me everything I want so that I'm, you know, I'm a member of NATO immediately. You know, I deserve all of these things and give me everything I want so that. I can win the war and go on the offensive next year. You can analyze this politically. You can say, well, he's trying to move the process of EU membership, oh, it faster, move the process of NATO membership faster. He's talking about an offensive next year because he wants to hold out hope to the West

that if Ukraine is given all that it wants, then they can actually win the war after all, you can analyze it in that way. And perhaps Zelensky himself does that to himself. But in truth and in reality, it's just the kind of things you would expect from a desperate man. They are indicators of desperation. He knows that everything is falling apart and it clearly is. an offensive with what

with no shelves no air defense systems the F-16s everybody now admitting that they're not going to make a difference are some suggestions that some of the countries that have agreed to give the F-16s and I bitterly regret having made that

extremely foolish decision what is he going to launch an offensive with and as the Russian Defence Ministry pointed out yesterday Now, you know, last offensive for Ukraine was a total disaster. It ended in complete failure. So they're going to do that all over again. You know, start another offensive from a far weaker position that the one that they launched last year.

I mean, it's lunatic stuff. But he is desperate. He still can't bring himself to negotiate. There was a story yesterday, which, by the way, the Turks have denied that Erdogan sent more peace proposals to Putin and Zelensky. But there's no doubt at all that the Ukraine, you know, people are trying to tell him, you know, sit down, negotiate, try to come to some kind of an arrangement with Putin. He knows if he does that at this point in the war.

When the war is being lost, he's finished. He's politically finished. He's a discredited man. the Ukrainian people will not forgive him for leading him for leading them to this point and then agreeing to capitulation. So he comes up with these bizarre stories because he can't sit down. He can't talk to the Russians psychologically and politically. It's impossible. He knows that the war is lost and he comes up with these desperate things. And that, as I said, I don't think one should analyze them too far. Now, by the way, yesterday, There is a debate in the Security Council in the United Nations.

And the Russian ambassador, rather formidable diplomat, Versilina Bensia, said that the only way this war will end is with the total capitulation of the government in Kiev. So that's what he said. Now, I don't know whether that's official policy, but there's a report floating around. I can't confirm it, but it's on Twitter X. it's been referenced on various telegram channels,

that Putin's spokesman, Peskov, has also said that there's no return to Istanbul, that that option doesn't exist anymore. And, you know, we remember we discussed when we talked about the Shoygu-Lu-le-Kon-U conversation, the one between the Russian and French defense ministers, that Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, immediately afterwards said that Istanbul had been destroyed. So it looks like the Russians anyway are implacable. I think Zelensky knows that as well.

I think he knows that he's burnt all his bridges with the Russians. So as I said, he's raving. This is raving that is coming from him. Let's talk about the mobilization law. Okay, so the mobilization. Sorry, I was waiting for you to go ahead. I mean, let me, can I just say this? This is a disastrous, I mean, first of all, it's a disastrous law. Even the New York Times is saying that for Ukraine, the demographics of Ukraine. But is it true that only something like 44 or 46? I forgot the number. MPs actually showed up in person to vote for this law. What does that tell you? That tells me that even the MPs, they've either bolted, they've checked out. They don't want to be associated with this, even though they voted for this.

A lot of them said, I'm not even going to show up to show my face as the voting is passed. I mean, that's what I've seen video of the parliament, which shows a pretty much empty parliament as the voting is passed. But I'm not 100% sure about this, but I just wanted to see if you've seen or read the same. I've seen exactly the same. I've seen the same pictures. I've even seen film of an empty chamber, just a few, you know, brave souls there. but as you correctly said, the vast majority of them stay away. In fact, there are rumours that some members of parliament,

Ukrainian members of parliament, these are only rumors, are trying to find ways to escape Ukraine, because they can also see that the writing is on the wall and that in effect they're being prevented from doing so because Zelensky's people still control the borders. So anyway, it was a terrible law. The Parliament knows it's a terrible law. Ukrainian society is strongly opposed to it.

The demographic that is now going to be called up is one of the smallest in Ukraine because of the post-Soviet collapse of the birth rate in Ukraine. By the way, that continues. Apparently, the number of births in Ukraine last year was at can. catastrophic levels. And what is now being proposed is that the young people, those, you know, at the height of their fertility, the people who, you know, in this kind of demographic crisis or to be protected in the hope that somehow the Ukrainian nation can be preserved, what's going to happen is they're all going to be rounded up and herded to the slaughter. Because that's what this amounts to. even if there were hundreds of thousands of them, which there are not, by the way, this is a small demographic. It can't make up the numbers of those who have been lost. There isn't the time to train these young people. None of them has had a background in the military before, or at least

most of them have not. So they have to be trained from the beginning. They are deeply opposed themselves to being sent to fight. This is just cruelty. The reason it's being done is, again, the war has to continue. Zelensky's political imperative, as I said, requires it. And of course, there are people in the West who have been demanding it. Lindsay Graham, Ben Wallace, people like that. They've been trooping off to Kiev, telling the Ukrainians,

you must call up every single man you have. Lutvac people in the West and Zelensky has been persuaded that he's got to do this thing in order to persuade the West of Ukraine's continued resolve to keep up the battle and in order to keep some kind of aid flows going. The cynicism, the cruelty of this thing is simply beyond the imagination. It is terrible. It won't change the outcome of the war. it's going to lead to many, many more people dying.

And by the way, the other thing is, I'm not saying this is necessarily going to happen. But if you start bringing in lots of unwilling young men into the army, that increases, I would have thought, the possibility of mass desertions, mass surrenders, perhaps even some kind of collapse. Terrible. Let's shift gears now and just talk about the frozen assets, because Biden, it looks like Biden is getting very frustrated with the fact that the Europeans don't want to destroy their financial architecture on behalf of stealing $200 billion in frozen assets. This is madness.

But, you know, the $61 billion, the fact that they want to get their hands on the $200 billion and in total of $300 billion just signals that, and we've been saying this for a while now, that you know you're coming to the end of this conflict when the collective West starts to start to really get frustrated and panicky about getting all the money. They want to get the money before this whole thing crashes down. And so, you know, Biden is now giving some sort of soft,

like a soft loan, a soft borrowing against the $200 billion. Just another crazy scheme. Anyway, what's going on? One scheme, one scheme after another, all of them, risking legal action by the Russians, some of them in jurisdictions like Singapore and Hong Kong, which the West doesn't control. And that's what's put the break on this. It's a very, very tricky situation for the Europeans,

because on the one hand, they have Biden, who, as we know, is an angry old man, who doesn't care very much about legal niceties and never accepts legal restraints. He's perfectly prepared to break legal restraints whenever they appear in his way. He's shown that many times. So they've just to a huge extent

already worked overtime to appease him on pretty much everything. So they probably deep down would want to appease him on this too. but they're now getting warnings from their lawyers, from their banks, from their central banks, all of which are telling them, to heaven's sake, don't do this thing. We are already in a very precarious situation financially in Europe. There's already signs that the euro is losing its attractiveness around the world as a reserve currency.

we are risky the financial stability of Europe if we go ahead with this idea but some of them still want to do it I don't know how this story is going to end

probably they will eventually seize the assets not just the interest but the assets as well because the hard liners among them always end up getting their way, however utterly self-destructive it is. But we see once more how the Europeans have trapped themselves into a no-win situation for them, one in which they can only lose. And you're

absolutely right when people are coming after the money in this fashion. When the arguments are all about money, that's a clear sign that this thing is coming to a name. And the interesting part is the final note, there's interesting part is that they're going to seize all this money, steal all this money. And it's not really going to buy. As we said in the beginning of the video, it's not going to go to buy wonder weapons or any type of weapons or weapons systems or weapons systems or anything that's going to change the trajectory of this conflict. Well, that's exactly true. But of course, you see, you get all this money. You seize it. Ukraine goes down. You can't give it to Ukraine because there's no Ukraine left. So what are you going to do? You keep it. And then you can distribute it to all your

friends. That's really what it's about now. I mean, this is, I mean, being utterly cynical about this. I don't know if Biden himself thinks like that. I think partly in Biden's case, he just gets angry when something he wants to happen, doesn't happen. I mean, that's very much my impression of him. But those who are advocating this thing, those others who are advocating this thing, those others who are amplicating this ring, are doing for the most, shall we say, pecuniary or financial material of all reasons, not because they really expected to help Ukraine, not because they really expected to hurt Russia. So how are going to hurt Russia? It's going to hurt the Europeans. It's probably going to have a back effect on the Americans too, by the way. I know there's a view that only Europe is really

exposed but everybody around the world knows who is really advocating this thing so i think it will hurt the americans their credibility as well but anyway put all that aside um some people will gain the ukraine gravy train looks like it might be coming to an end it's been going now for many, many years, long before the 2022 start of the special military operation. So what you do is you get the money first, divide it all up, and then move on to your next problem. That's what this is ultimately all about now. And as you absolutely rightly say, going back to what you said, when the arguments are

about money, then you know that the game is up. Yeah. And I'm certain that there are a lot of companies, a lot of wealthy backers and donors and institutions that were promised a lot of things when this conflict started, not only with regards to Ukraine, but also with Russia and the breakup of Russia. And they also want to get paid. Of course they do. They were promised one thing, and it hasn't worked out the way they were promised it would work out. No. Well, to give one just simple example, it seems vast amounts of Ukrainian land are now owned by Western agribil businesses, some of which apparently have rather interesting backgrounds. I'm not going to go into that in detail. But they're about to lose their investment, such as it is. They will want to be paid. And they're, you know, well-connected people. And that's just one example.

That's perhaps or even the most important one. In fact, it definitely isn't the most important one. All right, Alexander, let's end the video. Let's end the video with a clown world. This is a tweet from Samantha Power. Okay. She put this out on April 11, 2024, along with the video. Let me read your tweet, okay?

April 11, 2012, 24. This is her tweet. power, US aid. Putin is losing ground in the fight to destroy Ukraine's economy. In fact, Ukraine's economy is on track to grow 5% this year. Critical support from the U.S. and other allies has bolstered this Ukrainian resilience and helped them get on the path to self-sufficiency. This is not a joke. This is not a parody account. This is the real account of the real Samantha the power. This is not a tweet from a year ago or two years ago. It's accompanied with a video of her giving testimony to Congress as well, pretty much saying the same thing. What are your thoughts?

I mean, it's absolutely hilarious. By the way, on that issue, Glenn Dyson and I were very fortunate recently to interview Ian Proud, former British diplomat. He was in charge of sanctions, believe it or not, against Russia at the Britain's Moscow embassy. He's an economic specialist. He's done a searing discussion of the true state of the Ukrainian economy. The fact that it has, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist, which is an obvious fact. How can you have an economy when all the power stations have been destroyed? How can you have an economy when all the factories have been pulverized? How can you have an economy? How can you have an, economy when all the men have been, including the young people, are being thrown into battle.

To the extent that you have growth in Ukraine, it is entirely based upon infusions of Western funds. That's all. It's money goes in and then goes straight out again, but it keeps the GDP figures looking strong. We have the same in Afghanistan. You had the same in Vietnam. You know, Vietnam. Mamborful. It's just, it's the only, the only kind of people. And she knows that. Well, exactly.

I mean, she knows that. Of course she does. Of course she does. Continue, you were saying, I just want to say, she knows, she knows everything that you said. She knows all of that. The only, the only people who are fooled by that kind of thing are the headline

writers, which is who are getting their steers when people like some amount of path. Unbelievable. It really lets you into. into how they think, and the way they manipulate. Absolutely. Even at this moment, they still can't bring themselves to just say the truth.

Well, exactly. I mean, well, if you remember, you know, just before the collapse in Afghanistan, we had the president of the United States himself coming along, assuring us that all would be well. The Afghan army was strong and would be able to resist. And they went on saying that right up to the moment when Tad, Kabul,

collapsed. So it's just the same here. We shouldn't be surprised. They have, they have, you know, they have a record for doing this kind of thing. All right. We will end the video there. The durand. Dot locals.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, bitch shoot, telegram, Rock Finn, Twitter, X. And go to the Duran shop, get limited edition, merchandise. The link is in the description box down below. Take care.