The Duran Podcast - Zelensky divorced from reality. Trump wants meeting with Putin

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

Zelensky divorced from reality. Trump wants meeting with Putin

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the situation in Ukraine, a military update, and let's talk about what is happening in Pakrovsk, in Mirnograd, as well as Kupianz. Just a few days ago, Zelensky was telling the world that there are a couple of hundred soldiers, Russian soldiers in Pakrovsk, and that the Ukraine military would deal with them. The situation was difficult, but not catastrophic. according to Zelensky. And then we have his bizarre update on Kupyansk, where he said that there were 60 Russian soldiers in Kupyansk and the Ukraine military just needed a couple of weeks to deal with those 60 soldiers. That doesn't appear to be the situation. That's not the

situation. But anyway, the Russian Ministry of Defense, they actually issued. a statement saying that Zelensky is divorced from reality. An interesting statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Your thoughts on what he is saying and the real situation in these three areas? Absolutely. I mean, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it is completely divorced from reality and that there are only two explanations for it. The first is that Zelensky himself believes it, in which case, I mean, he's completely lost touch and connection with what is really happening on the front lines, or alternatively, and I think that they're right on the second, actually, that he's trying to deceive the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian

army, and above all, the people who the Russian Defense Ministry calls Zelensky's Western sponsors. In other words, the United States, Don Trump, the Europeans, people of that kind. And I think they're right. I mean, the Russian Defence Ministry are absolutely right about this, because all of the information we're getting from the front lines from the battlefields tells a completely different story, the diametrically opposite story to the one that Zelensky is saying. First of all, Pachrosk, this is the big battle, the biggest battle. The Russians, about two weeks ago, 10 days ago, said that they had surrounded the Ukrainian garrison in Pakrosk. With every day that passes, we can see that that is true

and that the situation of the Ukrainian forces there is deteriorating. Now, the Russians have established what appears to be overall control of Pachrosk itself. There are Ukrainian troops still in Pachrosk, but they appear to be mostly holdouts, people who are surrounded in various locations. They're obviously not able to form a unified resistance to the Russians. And there is a still coherent body. of Ukrainian troops in this area, which is basically an area that brings in the neighboring town of Mirnograd as well. But it also is clearly surrounded. And it is deterioration, the situation

there for these surrounded troops is deteriorating every day. And for what I can tell, the deterioration is accelerating. On one day, the Russians claimed that they'd captured 64 buildings in the Pakrosk area. Now, that suggests a rapid decline of resistance. And I get the sense that actual fighting within the Pachrovsk area is becoming very sporadic and that the Ukrainian forces there are not resisting very strongly anymore. And in Kupiansk, the situation seems to be actually worse. From what I could see, the Ukrainians there are surrounded too, surrounded by just the 60 Russian soldiers, presumably that Zelensky is talking about.

Well, let's put this irony aside. The Russians have clearly surrounded the Ukrainian soldiers in the Kupiansk area as well. And the Russians unusually have given us a timeline for when they think this is going to be over. They think it'll be over in about a week. So that perhaps tells us that the fighting in Kupiansk is progressing quite rapidly. Now, going back to that Russian Defence Ministry statement, the part where they say that Zelenskyy, is trying to deceive his Western sponsors. It looks as if the United States is not deceived,

because we've had a cluster of articles appearing in the American media, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, all of which are saying that the Ukrainians are indeed in a critical situation in Pakrovsk, that Pakrovsk is about to fall, and that the Ukrainians need to withdraw from Pakarovsk. And if you read the articles, which are all very similar, basically they are doing two things. I think they're reinforcing advice that the Americans are giving Zelensky, that just accept the fact that Pakarovsky's lost and withdraw,

so they are a message to Zelensky. And at the same time, they're preparing the American public for the fact that Pakrosk is going to fall. They're downplaying its significance. They're telling the usual stories about how the Russians have lost 10 million men trying to capture the small town and that it is of no military or strategic significance,

all of that, but they are trying to prepare the American public for the fall of Pakarovsk. Yeah, they do it all the time. Pakhmud, Avdafka, it's the same story. No strategic significance, yeah. Russia paid a heavy price. to win a propaganda narrative, which actually the Washington Post says that.

It says that Russia taken, Pakrovsk is going to be a big propaganda win for Russia. Not a logistics win, not anything like that. No, it's a propaganda win and nothing else. Yes. Okay. Trump is also now talking about solving Project Ukraine again. Yes. Right?

He's having, or he had a meeting with leaders from. from Eurasia, from Central Asia. And once again, he is talking about some sort of resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. Whitkoff also talked about the United States being close to some sort of a resolution for Ukraine. Coincidence that this is happening now that Russia is capturing Pakorovsk? Well, of course not. The whole premise of the changing policy by the Trump administration that we saw this autumn was that Ukraine was winning the war, that the Russians were bogged down, that the Russians would

never capture Dombas. And so for that reason, all that needed to be done was for the Russians to accept the freeze of the conflict because they were never going to win. and you're going to pile up the pressure on them to get them to do that. Now it looks like the Russians are winning after all, and they're not just winning in Pachrosk and Kupiansk. They're winning big in Zaporosia. This morning, as we're making this program,

there was announcements that an important fortified village called Uspenovka in Zaporosia region has fallen. There's reports of big Russian advances in other places in Kharkov region, Volchansk, another city there has fallen or is about to fall in Konstantinovka, another big town, the Russians advancing there to all of these things are coming together. So suddenly the Americans are understanding that, you know, all this story about Ukraine successfully holding the Russians back in Donbass. That wasn't really true after all.

So maybe, maybe just possibly we have to rejuven. devise our ideas, try to get the Russians to change, to agree to some kind of ceasefire after all, but perhaps accommodating some of their concerns, you know, like trying to get the Ukrainians to withdraw from Donbass and all that. So this is why the Americans have changed, TAC, because, as I said, they now, at least some of them, I don't think, Whitgoth, by the way, had any doubts, but Trump himself perhaps now realizes that he was tricked by a false narrative. I suspect it is too late. The mood in Russia has hardened significantly as a result of what has happened over the last few months, as we've discussed in many programs.

And with the Russians now advancing, I'm not sure why they would want to return to some of the ideas that were being talked about in August, given that as is in the situation now, on the battlefronts, is completely different. So the last month of this Trump flip-flop to go back to the ceasefire and then placing sanctions on Russia was based on information. that Ukraine was holding the Russians off in Pakorov's information that I would guess was from Zelensky to Kela, Grubio, Ratcliffe, I don't know, these guys. And then they advised Trump accordingly, right? So Trump said, yeah, so Trump said, okay, well, I'm just going to put more pressure on Russia. I'm going to place sanctions. I'm going to cut off their oil. And I'm going to go back to the ceasefire plan. from Kellogg, frees the conflict. I'm going to go back to all of that.

Now that this has been exposed as being a complete lie, is anyone going to get fired? No. I mean, right? No. And it's all going to revert back again. Because one thing that we can be absolutely certain about is that Zelensky is never going to accept any kind of retreat.

and he's going to take an absolute hard line. He's going to demand more military assistance, more military aid. And what will happen as night follows day is that even as Wickoff tries to get Trump to understand that the situation is turning critical and is going badly against him and that the Ukrainians and all of these other people, Kellogg and Waltz, the Rubio, Radcliffe have been lying to him, he's now got to change positions. But they will come back and say, Mr. President, you can't just let the Russians roll you over in this.

You've got to show that we are strong. That's what peace through strength is all about. So what we now need to do is to stem the tide of the Russians in the war. And that means sending long-range missiles to Ukraine and authorizing attacks on Russian refineries and toughening up and tightening up the blockade on Russian oil supplies. And you can already see this. So over the last couple of hours, the US Treasury has blocked a sale by luke oil of its overseas refineries to a Swiss-based company called Gunvore.

The Treasury has said some absolutely awful things about Gunvo that they're controlled by Russia, which there is no evidence of, by the way, it's a Swiss company. This has been a story that the Treasury Department has been running with for years because one of the original founders of Gunval was a Russian businessman, though he's departed from the company long ago. But the Treasury, the Neocons, as we know, when. they crystallize of you, they will never change it. So they blocked the transfer of the assets from luke oil to Gunville. They're going to try and tighten up further on Russian oil exports.

India looks like it's going to continue to buy Russian oil. They bought more Russian oil in December for December. China, of course, is not going to pay any attention to the American sanctions or threats of sanctions whatsoever, as we have seen. So the big pressure is going to be on Europe, and they're already working on this, and trying to stop oil supplies from Russia to Europe, and LNG supplies to Europe, creating massive problems in Europe, potentially an oil shortage there, a potential crisis in Bulgaria. which depends heavily on refined oil from a refinery, a lucre refinery in Bulgaria. Massive problems in Hungary.

This is Auburn, Trump's erstwhile friend. We discussed how he's been thrown under a bus. And potentially a very cold winter in Europe. The United States apparently struggling to keep up with a, oil export demands, perhaps facing a cold winter itself, perhaps able to supply less to Europe than it did, we're going to have energy and a further upward spike in energy costs in Europe this winter, or at least that's how it looks. But that's what's going to happen now. There's going to be this demand from the hardliners, even as the situation deteriorates.

not to go back and negotiate with the Russians and return to the Alaska ideas, but to escalate it, Stan. Would the Russians even return to the Alaska idea? I mean, Trump is now starting to float it out there again, right? He's floating it out there. He thinks that he's going to maybe charm Putin into another round of phone calls and negotiations and talking about solving the conflict in Ukraine. I mean, he's floating it out there now. Will Putin? Will the Russians fall for this song and dance again? I highly doubt it. I think it is very unlikely.

I mean, we've discussed this many times. Putin himself undoubtedly has been badly embarrassed and badly burnt by his attempts to get something set up with Trump. If Trump comes back and now says to Putin, let's go back to what we agreed in Alaska. What is inevitably going to happen is that Putin is going to have to go to his Security Council, in other words the top people in Russia, and he's going to say, look, Trump now wants to return to Alaska. And they will say to him, you must be joking. I mean, he's already played you once. Why do you go on trusting this man who is so obviously and completely,

untrustworthy. And why would we want to do it anyway? This concession that you made back in August, we seized fire in Zaporosia and Herson region in return for the Ukrainians pulling out of Dombas. Well, that might have made a kind of sense in August because we still had a lot of fighting to do to gain control of Donbass, but with Prakosk and Kukkjansk about to fall, the writing is on the wall for the Ukrainians in Dombas. Anyway, and can we really give up now in Zaporosia, where we're making all of these advances, and in Hurson, where our troops are in Hurson City across the river? So I think that I just basically, I can't see it.

I can't imagine that even Putin will want to go there. And if he does, I think there would be an enormous row about it. And I don't think Putin would want to go against what I suspect would be the unanimous view in the Security Council, which is completely opposed to this. I ought to say, it's not just, of course, oil issues. I mean, we're talking about the Europeans. The Europeans are struggling to get a financial package for Ukraine together. Ukraine is running out of money, very fast now.

There's worries again about hyperinflation. You would think that all the pressures are there now to try to settle this thing as quickly as possible. My own sense is that because Trump didn't do the deal in Alaska, the chances of retrieving this situation are gone. And we could be seeing a major crisis in Ukraine in the spring. And at that point, frankly, I don't think Trump will have any cards left at play. Yeah, the whole story about financing Ukraine. is really interesting because Belgium is staying firm in that they're not going to go for the

seizing of the assets. Obviously, it would destroy Belgium. As a country, it would melt down. Euroclear would melt down and Belgium would melt down. And so at least you have Belgium finally confronting the situation and saying, look, we've gone too far. Taking the Russian assets would mean that our country would have a financial catastrophe. Yes. And no one in Europe wants to support Belgium, right? They talk about solidarity all the time in unity. And then when Belgium says, okay, well, let's share the risk, all the EU member states

are saying, nah, it's not really. We don't need to share the risk on this one. Just trust us, Belgium. Everything's going to be okay is what they're telling Belgium. Yeah. So now the EU is floating out Eurobonds again. basically. Yes. Right? Absolutely. That's exactly what they're doing. And we're going to see probably big pressures over the next couple of weeks to try and get Eurobonds floating. The problem

with Eurobonds is that with Merz's popularity in Germany declining fast, what was unacceptable in Belgium with respect to Russian asset seizures, might be unacceptable in Germany with respect to Eurobonds. I'm getting the sense that the mood in Germany is shifting and is shifting hard against this idea, too. So it's looking very difficult and very complicated. And by the way, it's not just the Belgians who are now coming out, opposing the idea of Russian assets seizures. It's also the French and the Italians.

And I suspect it's an opportunistic thing. I think we're never happy that the Germans were making all the running with this asset seizure idea. They are probably trying to use this to try to get the Germans to agree to Eurobonds. This is why they're now opposing the acid seizures because they want to push the Germans towards the Eurobond idea. because France and Italy as the two biggest debtors in the EU are obviously very keen altogether on debt pooling within the European system. They want to draw indefinitely on Germany's credit card. But that's going to make the Germans even more likely to oppose this. So it's all very interesting and it's going to be interesting to see how all this plays out.

It's not only Germany that's against the Eurobonds, the Netherlands. The Netherlands. It's against the Eurobonds. I believe Finland or the people in Finland, the population in Finland is against Eurobonds. The EU is also taking money out of other funds, like social funds, and they're moving it into these war funds in order to give the money to Ukraine to keep them afloat. I mean, they're cannibalizing their own funds.

I mean, they're plundering their own funds, which is probably legal, by the way. I mean, I cannot imagine that this is a legal practice. I mean, in any in any budget system, state budget system that I know of, transferring funds from one part of the budget to pay another part of the budget without going through certain very complicated and elaborate legal processes is always acknowledged to be illegal. But of course, Ursula and Company are never going to restrain themselves of doing that kind of thing. Because the days when the European Commission let European law restrain what it does of long since gone away. Those days are gone.

A final question. Rute, the CEO of NATO. He gave a speech in Romania where he hinted at European ammunition production surpassing Russian ammunition production. Now, I've gone through the speech. Yes. And there's only two to three sentences, not even, two sentences. Yeah.

Where Rute makes the claim that the days of Russia producing more ammunition than NATO are coming to an end. He doesn't get into any specifics. He doesn't actually say that NATO is making more ammunition than Russia. He says that those days are coming to an end. What do you make of that statement from Ruta? Well, it seems that Europe is in the midst of a great production miracle because just a few weeks ago, months ago, he was saying that Russia is producing more ammunition than the whole of the collective West combined. But you see, all we need to do is to continue to spend a little bit more money and give put a little more energy behind this. I mean, don't despair now. It's true Pachrovsk is about to fall. It's a true

Kukyansky is about to fall. Dombas is about to collapse. But we've got to keep going because we are almost there. We've achieved this enormous production miracle. Don't ask me for the figures. I'm not here to provide you the figures. After all, these are probably classified and secret anyway. But all we need to do is just keep going a little longer and all will be well because we'll be surpassing, overtaking the Russians on this. Now, I think a bit obviously ironic here, but can I just say, I have, I think, a pretty fairly good idea of what the real production numbers in terms of weapons, artillery ammunition,

actually are. I think there was an upward bump at the start of this year. I think it's run its course and I think it's falling again. And if Babish really means what he says, I think that we'll start to see a decline in Czech reduction as well. And the Czech Republic, interestingly, has been, well, it is because of historic reasons, going back to before communism, by the way, when the Czech, Republic and Slovakia were the former industrial heartland of the Habsburg Empire. They had

a large number of big industrial factories that produced shells and such things. And they still apparently account for a large proportion of Europe's shell production. But we shouldn't take any of this seriously. From Roeta is just, again, propaganda. Business. Business for the CEO. Just on Babich, I was going to ask you about Babich to wrap up the video. He has formed the government. The coalition is right of Babich. And they're more, they appear more anti-Ukraine or taking a more anti-Ukraine position than what Babich had taken. So not looking good for the EU in terms of Czech Republic, perhaps good for Orban and Fidzio.

Absolutely. There was a lot of uncertainty about what direction Babbage would take, but it does look as if he's taken this line. And I understand, by the way, that the domestic pressures in the Czech Republic are very, very strong, and it would have been politically all but impossible for him to shift in the other direction. So we now have the Habsburg lands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, they're coming together, and they're starting to form and a block within the European Union, which opposes further commitment, the further deep commitment to Ukraine. And I would say, by the way, I don't think the situation in Austria is played out.

I think that there are still, there's still a lot to decide about what's going to happen in Austria. But the fact that Babish has taken this line makes it more likely that eventually Austria will jump and we'll go over to that side too. Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Yeah, the old Habsburg empire coming back together. Interesting. All right. We will end the video there. The durand.com.

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