The Duran Podcast - Zaluzhny waits as WEST money POURS into Ukraine

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Zaluzhny waits as WEST money POURS into Ukraine

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is going on in Ukraine. Actually, let's talk about what is going on in the UK with the ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, Mr. Zoluzni. What's going on with Zoluzni? Is he ready to take over for Zelensky or is he still hanging out in London waiting for the orders to make his move? Well, it was all very interesting because for the first time, we've had a big article about Zillusione in The Guardian. Now, the Guardian is the most pro-Zolensky, the most enthusiastic media outlet about Zolensky in Britain. Even some of the other media outlets in Britain have started to be a little bit more critical of Zolensky than they had been up than they had been. before. But the Guardian was the most loyal. And now they've written this long piece about Zalusini,

talking about what a brilliant and inspirational military commander he was, how he's still in contact with the military people in Ukraine, how his relationship with Zelensky deteriorated, and suddenly the admission that he's seen by increasing numbers of people both inside Ukraine, in Kiev and outside Ukraine as a potential person who might take over from Zelensky. Now, bear in mind, Zeluzni is based in London. Britain has an enormous amount of investment, as we all know in Ukraine and a Ukrainian matters. It's back Zolensky to the hills. But the fact that articles like this are starting to appear about Zilluzni suggests

that even the British are starting to think, maybe, just maybe, the time has gone to switch horses to stop backing Zillusioni against Zelensky. And they mentioned that J.D. Vance has been sending out feelers to Zillusiony, trying to see whether he might be interested in making some kind of a move. I'm not sure this is quite correct, but apparently Vance tried to see. set up a telephone call with Zillusioni in March. This is the story that the Guardian is publishing. And Zolluzni refused to speak to Vance, which I think is inconceivable, by the way. I cannot imagine the ambassador of Ukraine refusing to speak to the vice president of the United States. I think that is impossible. So probably there have been some contacts.

Secondly, it turns out that he had a visit from Andrei Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff. Again, we're told that it was in November last year, but I can find it strange. If so, that we're only learning about it now. But apparently Yermak went to see Zalusini to make sure that Zoluzni is loyal and reliable and doesn't get any dangerous ideas. And then the Guardian also spoke about the fact that there is a procession of people constantly turning up at the Ukrainian embassy in London, people from Ukraine, people from outside Ukraine, all of them anxious to meet with Zuluzni, all of them prepared to discuss with him the question of whether or not he might become president of Ukraine. Now, the article says that so far Zaluzni is turning them all away. He's saying that he's not interested in moving against Zelensky. Well, if he really was not interested in moving against Zelensky, he could kill this off right away by making a single public statement. He could come up and say very clearly, I am not interested in replacing Zelensky.

I support Zelensky. I am Ukraine's ambassador. in London, I am not a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine so long as Zelensky is president. You could do that, but notice that he hasn't done it. It seems to me that he's playing a very complicated game and one which apparently some people in Kiev are getting increasingly annoyed with him about. I mean, is he playing a game or is the UK in the West playing a game? Because, I mean, he's not really the ambassador of Ukraine to the UK.

I mean, he's not like actually doing ambassador stuff, is he? I mean, he's there, you know, in kind of a holding pattern. At least that's the way I see his illusionie. They have him. I don't know. Is it the UK? Is it the MI6? Is it parts of the UK?

My question, I guess, to you is, it seems like Stommer is very much supportive of Zelensky that he's backing Zelensky hard, as is Macron. So is it other parts of the UK government that maybe have Zillusioning holding pattern? Is it the US? That's keeping Zillusioning in the UK in the holding pattern. I mean, what are the dynamics of all of this? We don't know all of the dynamics, but clearly it is a part of the British establishment that is keeping's illusioning in the UK and that is promoting him there. Because I agree with you. I don't think Stama has anything to do with this. I think Stama is completely one with Zelensky. I think the Americans, no doubt,

are involved at some level, but Zillusioni is in Britain. London is obviously Britain's capital. It is part of the British establishment that is now building up Zollusioni and which is arranging these pieces in The Guardian. And you're absolutely right. He's not doing any ambassadorial duties. In fact, the Guardian article told us as much. He told us about he's visiting the theatre, that he's holding photos,

photoshoots, that he's relaxing, that he's having a good time. He's not doing anything serious that an ambassador would be expected to do. It talks about, you know, Zillusioni having this very relaxed holiday, if you like. As you know, because your father was an ambassador. Real ambassadors are very overworked people. Zaluzi gives no such impression. Yeah, exactly. So what this really, so what this points do is that there is trouble in Kiev, right?

There are parts of even the British establishment, which says a lot, actually, that are looking at their options. Yes. And you could even assume, given the J.D. Vance story, which I don't believe either, I can't believe that Vance called Zillusioni and Solutioni would not pick up. But anyway, it does point to a part of the U.S. establishment that is also. so looking at their options. Yes, absolutely. And of course, the reason is that people are gradually coming to understand that Zelensky is impossible. Now, Ukraine just celebrated its Independence Day celebrations. Zelensky made all kinds of extraordinary speeches. He said, no concessions on anything, no concessions on territory. Every millimeter of Ukraine's territory

belongs to Ukraine, including Crimea, by the way, which everybody recognizes is impossible. He wants security guarantees. He wants NATO membership. He's prepared, he's not prepared to concede on anything at all. And 10 days ago, two weeks ago, in the run up to the visit of Zelensky and the European leaders to Washington, reports were appearing in the American media that the Americans were expecting Zelensky to come with constructive counter proposals, counter proposals that could be taken to the Russians and could be used as the basis of discussions between Zelensky and Putin, perhaps in a bilateral

meeting with, you know, a whole process leading up to that. Zelensky came with no proposals at all. He did, discussed nothing like that. And he's making again ever wilder threats. I mean, he's now talking about missile strikes against Russia. His people are publishing pictures of new missiles that he's going to use to strike a targets in Russia. And in the meantime, he is conducting strikes against energy facilities. And one of the key facilities that he's, people have attacked, his air force is attacking, is of course, the Drushba pipeline that is sending oil and gas to Hungary and Slovakia and to other Central European countries. And he not only has done this once, but he's done it twice, the president of the United States,

three times, three times. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has told, written, a letter apparently to Victor Albarn saying that he's absolutely furious about this. He's very, very angry about this. And Zelensky, far

from stopping, he's bragging about this. I mean, he made comments about this attack. I mean, he didn't exactly admit to what was happening, but you could see that he was being cheeky and sarcastic and

humorous and making jokes, about this in a kind of a way. And you could see that he's just going to go ahead, go on doing this. And of course, he's also demanding more money. He wants the Europeans to stomp up a billion dollars a month to provide military supplies to Ukraine. He wants more money from the Europeans over and above this. He shows no sign at all of willingness to make any concessions. to find some way out of this wall, which is proving so completely destructive for Ukraine, for Europe,

and which is becoming such a burden for the United States as well. So you can understand why people are beginning to get very exasperated when. Why would Russia accept Zaluzni? I mean, Zilluzni is a bandarite, right? I mean, he is. I mean, let's be straight, straight up about it. Why would Russia accept a bandarite? But they're not going to accept it.

That's the other thing that's so unreal about this whole discussion. In this Guardian article, the quote they gave from Zaluzni is that if he becomes president, he will become Ukraine's Winston Churchill promising to fight Russia. There's anybody else other than Winston Churchill, by the way, in British history that they could draw on? There's even a quote in which he says apparently that he's going to offer the Ukrainians the same thing that Churchill offered the British blood, sweat and tears and all of that. And that, you know, he's not absolutely, you know, he wants the Ukrainians to understand if he does become president that this is actually what he's going to offer them. So, you know, he's, you know, we've had the one Churchill who is, of course, Zelensky, but he hasn't quite, you know, live. up to the image. So we're now coming up with the new Churchill, who is Zillusionee, who's also

somehow going to negotiate and end the war. And of course, the Russians will not accept him. I mean, there's no way they will accept Zillusioning. Zillusioning is not going to come up with any proposals different from Zelenskis. There's no way he can. I mean, this is what makes the whole discussion ultimately so unreal. The reason Zillen's solution, if Zolensi, if Zolensi, really does want to go back to Kiev and take over, which I presume he does, because as I said, if he didn't, he would simply say so. I don't want to become president of Ukraine, and that would be the end of the mountain. But presumably, the reason he wants to take over is because he and his group want to be, again, at the receiving end of the funnel of money that's pouring in. So instead of

being filtered through Zelensky, it's going to be filtered to Zillusionee, perhaps to a slightly different set of people. They're probably saying to themselves, well, Zillusioni doesn't come with some of the baggage that Zolensky does. So maybe we can get the money to actually, the money flows to resume and actually increase. So, and, you know, maybe he can also be a little bit more responsible, no attacks on the Drusba pipeline, for example, or any of those things. Speaking of the Drusba pipeline, I just wanted to say something, the Italians have just arrested someone in Italy who is apparently on the wanted list for the Nord Stream pipeline attacks. Now, I am sure that this is connected with all of this, because the word that's been

out for some time and apparently it comes to the Ukrainians is that the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines was supposedly Zolluzni's idea. So could it be that this is away by someone

in Kiev? Maybe they tipped off the Italians that this guy was there, round him up Barris Zillusioni by bringing this whole topic up again. Or maybe it's another way of giving a warning to the Ukrainians, look, you're going to stop attacks on the Drusbapit pipeline.

I'm not going to try and speculate or work out the details of this. But one way or the other, this arrest in Italy, I am sure is connected to all of these intrigues that we are now seen. Yeah, I mean, it was the BBC that I think first reported on Zilluzni green lighting the whole Nord Stream operation. He had a talk with Zelensky. I remember that BBC article. They claimed that he had a talk with Zelensky and Zelensky was saying, no, let's not

do this or do this and Zillusionis did it or I don't know. No, I remember what it was. Zillusionni said he already has okayed it. And Zelensky was like, oh, well, if you already okayed it, you can't take it back. And Zillusionne was like, no, I can't take it back. It's already done. I remember that BBC article. Yeah.

So, I mean, it could be the other, it could be the reverse of what you're saying. Yes. It could be that they're looking to clean up Zalusini's reputation. Yes. Maybe they're trying to put it on other people so that they can clean up. this, the BBC reporting on Zilluzni with regards to Nord Stream. So it could be something like that as well. Absolutely. But anyway, I mean, they've now started something by an arrest, which they can't completely let go. I mean, you know, we are talking about the Italian legal system. And as anybody

who has experienced on it, I'm talking about the criminal, Italian criminal legal system, just to be very clear. People can disappear into it for very, very, very long time and not come out again. So I, you know, don't assume that anything is going to happen quickly. But it's going to be a little difficult to simply close down this discussion, this story now, given that we actually have an arrest. Just saying. Yeah, that BBC article has Dogged, Asloujny for quite a while. Now, he denies everything.

Absolutely. But that article is out there. It's on the internet. So, I mean, you know, how could you have a president of Ukraine with that type of article, that type of reporting? from the collective West media. Yeah. So the money that's flowing to Ukraine is not stopping. Zelensky is asking for $1 billion a month.

He got $9 billion a year from a broken bankrupt to Germany. And NATO is saying that they're going to give another $50 billion. You know, Trump brags that the U.S. is not giving money directly to Ukraine. but it's the United States that's giving money to Ukraine via NATO. Trump doesn't want to mention that. And Germany is saying that their welfare system is not sustainable, but the finance minister is promising $9 billion to Ukraine, at least until 2026, plus the $1 billion every month,

plus Canada gave Ukraine another $2 billion in the European Union. Alexander gave $4 billion to Ukraine on Ukraine's income. Independence Day. And they've also stated that they've given Ukraine $9 billion in total in 2025 that is guaranteed by the Russian frozen assets, backstop by the Russian frozen assets, which once again points to the fact that the European Union is using those Russian frozen assets as collateral or dipping into the principle of those Russian frozen assets, whatever it is. And I think that's another reason why the European Union does not want the war to end because they know that if there is some sort of resolution, then they're on the hook for whatever

money or loans has been attributed or used from those Russian frozen assets. They're going to be in really big, freaking trouble, the EU from their poking around at the Russian frozen assets. You're absolutely correct, because of course the Russians will want their money back. If there's any situation where sanctions are lifted, which there would be if there was an agreed peace agreement, the Russians would expect their money to be returned to them. And they would have, if it wasn't returned to them, there are already existing legal cases being working through the various courts in various jurisdictions outside the EU. jurisdictions, however, where Euroclear also has a presence. Euroclear is the depository in which this money is held.

I mean, this could destroy Euroclear. And if Euroclear were destroyed, it could create massive damage to the European system, the European financial system. So there's massive problems. I mean, this is, this is starting to have to have, to have, the appearance, something of the appearance of a Ponzi scheme about it. You have to keep the money going in all the time in order to prevent the whole thing collapsing in ways that are going to start raising legal problems for the people who are running it. So, I mean, you know,

an unconventional Ponzi scheme, but something of that quality. So this is why they need to keep the walk, one of the reasons why they need to keep the walk going. And in the meantime, and we just put together all of the various figures that you talked about, one billion a month for military supplies, nine billion from Germany, four billion from the European Union, 600 million from Norway, by the way. I can't remember how much it was from Canada, but you know, two billion, two billion from Canada. I mean, the money is pouring in. I mean, the level of money that's going into Ukraine is, I mean, on a scale that I have never seen. I mean, it's much, much more than was pouring into Afghanistan, for example, even at the height of the war there.

So, where is it all going? Well, we know where it's all going. It's going into all kinds of other projects around the world. And you're absolutely right. Some of this money does a reasonable. originate with US taxpayers, money provided by NATO, money provided by the IMF and the World Bank. The IMF still continues to have a lending program to Ukraine. Incredible, though that sounds to me. This is a country that is bankrupt. Its debt levels are above 100% of GDP. Its budget has collapsed.

it's in a state of armed conflict and the IMF continues to support it. This is just off the, I mean, it's bewildering. The World Bank also continues to provide money to Ukraine. Again, I don't pretend I know as much about the World Bank as I do about the IMF, but this is incredible. Who provides most of the money to the IMF and to the World Bank? The US Treasury. So, of course, this is ultimately goes back to American taxpayers.

So it is an unending money flow to Ukraine. We had a small brief moment earlier this year when the US stopped civil funding for Ukraine. You remember it was the time when they were closing down USAID and all of that, but it looks as if it's now resuming with a vengeance. And of course, Zelensky wants it and Zelensky's getting it, but so does Zaluski and his people too. That's what this is all ultimately about, at least whatever part of it they can hold on to. But I'm trying to figure out what is going on with all of this. I think you're on to something when you say Ponzi scheme. I mean, I can't think of another word to describe it because it's bankrupt countries giving money to a bankrupt country

and bankrupt organizations giving money to a bankrupt country. that has lost a war and is going down. I mean, the ship is going to, is sinking. The ship is sinking. And not only Ukraine, the ship is sinking in Europe, you have France, which is going to have a no confidence vote. Their budget is going to, I don't think it's going to get approved what Biden was trying to do. We'll see, but it looks like their government is about to collapse. The Netherlands government is collapsing. The British government is, there's talk about going to the IMF and getting a bailout. Trump is, is talking, is talking. nonsense about how the United States is not giving any money to Ukraine. Meanwhile, NATO is talking about 50 billion going to Ukraine. That's American money. What's happening here? Ursula Vandrelayan is there's talks that she may go and become president of Germany in 2027. You know, she's in a five-year term in the EU. It sounds to me like they're trying to shuffle her out of the EU and somewhere else. So maybe she's trying to get off the sinking ship that is the EU. I don't know. You know, how do you interpret all of this?

I mean, there's a lot of chaos in Europe, a lot of emission in Europe that they're broke and bankrupt, but they're still giving money to Ukraine. For example, Mertz, the same day, he says, welfare is not sustainable. The same day, his finance minister announces $9 billion to Ukraine. How do you square the circle here? I mean, you cannot square this circle.

It is completely important. possible to do that. And of course, you've much more experience of this from a business angle than I do. But of course, I've looked at these situations in a bankruptcy position because I've dealt with many, many bankruptcies and liquidations in my time. When this kind of thing happens, when things no longer add up, when nothing makes sense anymore, where figures money is being shuffled around and passed around, well, I have to say this, this tends to be. be in companies at least, a clear sign of financial fraud. There's no other word to describe it.

Now, maybe, you know, one shouldn't transpose what happens in businesses to what governments do. But I wonder whether taxpayers will agree with that when eventually, as I said, you know, the money stops moving and we find ourselves in the situation where the financial game of musical chairs has stopped and those who are still there, you know, find themselves in the mess that they are. By the way, Ursula trying to become president of Germany, it looks to me like she's trying to bail out. That's what it looks to me more like than anything else. Because Mertz hates Hercl. I mean, they don't get along. So someone has told Mertz because he's

the one that suggested it. So obviously someone told Mertz, you need to push for Ursula. to come back to Germany. Yes. Quite. Absolutely. I mean, we are talking, this is the important thing to understand. We are talking about hundreds of billions now.

Maybe trillion. Well, probably, eventually. I mean, bear in mind, this has been going on for years. I mean, it's not obviously started, not on this scale, but it started back in 2014. I remember when in 2050, Ukraine effectively defaulted. And I said at the time, this must be the end of IMF funding. And to my astonishment, IMF funding continued. So this has gone a long, long backstory going many, many,

many years. But of course, it's really exploded since 2022. And over the last six months, It's got worse. I think you nailed it. I think one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, that they cannot stop the war, even Trump, one of the main reasons that Trump in his White House cannot walk away from this war is I believe all the bankers and Wall Street and the IMFs and the world banks, all of these organizations, all of these globalists and elite and political elitists, all these people have basically put out the message, we can't stop this thing now.

We can't stop this. There's too much money that's been poured into it. The whole system's going to collapse if we stop this thing. So we just need to continue to pour money in, to keep this thing going. Yes. And bring in General Zolucci, because he's a little bit more marketable than Zelensky. Maybe you find some understanding from the Russians. Maybe the people in Alaska, which was consisting mostly of finance people and economists.

Maybe they were trying to find some understanding from the Russians. the Russians in that look, we need to find a way to soft land the Ukraine conflict in order to avoid a hard crash of the global system. Maybe. I mean, it remains intriguing that both the Russian and American finance ministers were in Alaska. I mean, there's never, there's been no real explanation of this. And the fact that when Putin held a meeting just before he went to Alaska to discuss what the Russian strategy would be there, the head of the Russian central bank, Nubulinna was there. And again, she doesn't seem an obvious person to be discussing Ukrainian matters with. And she was also part of the same panel to which Putin reported when he

returned. So, you know, one wonders whether perhaps something like that is indeed going on. I have to say, there is no hint of it in any media outlet that I've seen Russian or otherwise. But, as is it, it is still an answered question, why Siluanov, the finance minister, was in Alaska and what exactly he was doing. Why Bessent was there also. Why Nebula, it was hovering

behind the scenes. I mean, what all of these people were doing, what the real discussion was all about, I have absolutely no idea. But something was going on. And there's been no real explanation of it. And of course, in the meantime, what goes on

is that we see every single day Zelensky goes on, He wants the war to go on. He demands more money. He torquist brandishes his missiles. He attacks oil pipelines. He attacks oil refineries across Russia. He claims credit, falsely as it happens, for the fact that the Russians have imposed an export ban on gasoline.

The Russians regularly impose export bans on gasoline, especially when overall inflation is high. So, anyway, he's busy doing all of these things. And whatever it is that he's doing, he clearly isn't getting the message at the moment from the Americans and the British and maybe the Europeans too. Because suddenly we see pieces about Zoluzzi starting to appear. Yeah, but it seems like Zelensky believes he has this untouchability factor to, I mean, and he does in a certain extent. I mean, when he talked about the Drusba pipeline, I mean, there was a play on word. where he talked about the friendship with Hungary and the truce bas. He was playing on those words.

But it was a clear threat to Hungary. Either you led us into the European Union and NATO and you stop importing Russian oil or else we're going to continue to hit at your pipeline. We're talking about a non-EU member state, a non-NATO member state attacking an EU member state and a NATO member state. And it seems as interesting. if Hungary is reluctant to retaliate. And Hungary does have ways to retaliate.

They do have leverage over Ukraine to a certain extent. Yes. But there are also forces that are telling Hungary to show restraint. There are forces that are telling Orban, no. No, you can't go after Zelensky. Can't go after Ukraine. They can go after your pipeline, but you can't do anything to protect your energy, security.

and Trump is not coming to the aid of Orban either. He sent a note. He said he's very angry. But you can see the United States is very quiet on this issue. They haven't really, really made a statement. Carolyn Levitt has not said anything about this. Orban, sorry, Trump has not said anything about Orban's letter to the media. So he's also very hush, hush about this.

I mean, remember, Zeletsky never apologized to Trump from that White House incident either. So there seems to be something, some forces at work which are telling the Trump White House, which tell Lorban, which tell all of these people, you're not going to touch the Zelensky government yet. So we have Zillusiony there on hold. Yeah. But right now, Zelensky is going to stay put and that's that. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, this is the only explanation because there are no other explanations.

There is, there's, one gets the sense with this crisis that there's an awful lot more going on than we are being told. I mean, we now know, for example, that the Russians and the Americans have been talking to each other a lot more than we knew, that there'd been back channel contacts. We don't know what was said between them. It looks as if all kinds of things are happening behind the scenes that we simply don't know about. Meanwhile, the war itself goes on, the Russians continue to advance. Prokhov's situation continues to deteriorate. We have a crisis in the Lima and Seversk area. The Russians are advancing further and faster towards the city of Zaporosia. I get the sense that from the Russians' point of view, this also suits them too. They don't really want the situation to end

because ultimately, in terms of a geopolitical play, it works to their advantage. Yeah, the Russian also play along with the whole fiction of the United States being this neutral mediator. I mean, they play right along with that. Exactly. Yeah. Any updates before we end the video on the whole security guarantees thing? Well, I think this is quietly fading away now. I mean, Donald Trump said that nothing has yet been agreed.

The one decided. I think the Russians have basically put the, I think they've killed that one. I mean, everybody knows that they cannot. be security guarantees provided to Ukraine without the Russians agreeing. And the Russians have said that the kind of security guarantees that were being talked about by Zelensky and maths and all of the others, that they're just simply not acceptable. And I think that's probably the end of it. What happened to all the security guarantees that Ukraine signed with all of the collective West countries? You could ask me that question. I don't know. I really don't know. I remember we were

talking about them at the time, and we were saying that they were pieces of paper. I mean, there were absolutely worthless pieces of paper. And well, here's the proof. You're absolutely, I was actually you said that. You are absolutely right, because Ukraine supposedly already has all these security guarantees from the United States as well, by the way. The Biden administration signed when Britain did, all kinds of countries that all of these countries that are going to provide security guarantees to Ukraine, have already provided security guarantees to Ukraine, except, of course, as I said, it all turned out to be worthless. And notice, notice that no one, no one at all is talking about this.

The Ukrainians are not talking about it. The Americans are not talking about it. The British are not talking about it. The media are not talking about it. It's another one of those extraordinary things that happens or has happened. which nobody wants to talk about. You know, I'm going to pick a suggestion. Possibly, this is very, I mean, I don't know that this is true.

It may be completely off, you know, wrong. But I wonder whether those so-called security guarantees that Ukraine received weren't needed as some kind of security for some of the loans and money flows that were taking place then, whether in fact just as the money issue is mysterious, the security guarantees that Ukraine has already been provided is also mysterious. And where there are two mysteries, sometimes there's only one. Just that. Right, right.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. Like, you know, if we're going to give you money, Ukraine, we need to know that you have some sort of U.S. backstop in order to approve X billions. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anyway, we'll end the video there. The durand.locals.com. We are on Rumble and Telegram and X and go to the Durant shop pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. There's a link in the description box down below. Take care.