The Duran Podcast - Zelensky, EU; desperate and frightened during Granada summit

Episode Date: October 7, 2023

Zelensky, EU; desperate and frightened during Granada summit

All right, Alexander, let's do an update on Ukraine. Let's talk about what's happening on the front lines. And then let's talk about what's going on in Spain, a big EU mating with Zelensky present. And we can also discuss some of the freakout that is happening in the United States on the side of the Biden White House, which is trying to find. find money, looking under the sofa cushions to find whatever money it can to give to Ukraine, and the freak out on the Ukrainian government side of things, because they understand that if the U.S. starts to pull back, they're finished. Even Borell acknowledged it the other day.

He said, look, whatever money Europe can give, we can't match what the U.S. can give to Ukraine. So, I mean, everything hinges on the United States and on the United States giving Ukraine money. It seems forever in perpetuity. I mean, what are your thoughts on? Let's start with the front lines and then let's get your thoughts on all of these important meetings. Yeah, I think it is important this time that we do start briefly. We only need to cover it briefly the front lines, but it is what has happened on the front lines. that has ultimately determined everything else.

Because all that money, all that equipment, all that support was given at the start of this year in order to conduct a successful counter-offensive. Four months have passed. We're now in the fifth month. The counter-offensive has been a complete failure. It hasn't broken through in any place. Putin has just said that Ukrainian losses are over 90,000 men, dead and severely wounded.

That's his number, but I don't see any reason myself to dispute that it's probably true. During the counteroffensive. During the counter- Not the whole war, just during the counter-offensive. There was an absolutely terrible article

in the London Times. I covered it extensively in my program on my channel yesterday, which went through, as a journalist Max Tucker, Max Taka, he went to the, well, as close as one is allowed from the Ukrainian side to the front lines. He found the Ukrainians troops clearly demoralized. One of them saying, I want to go home.

They're not making any breakthrough in the area where those breakthroughs are supposed to have happened. They're bombed. They've been constantly and relentlessly bombed by the Russian Air Force. The weight of Russian military power is increasing on them all the time. And it's true all across the front lines. This journalist from the London Times, he went to Zaporozia. He went to the area of Rabatino and Verbovoje. And that was what he found there, exhausted Ukrainian troops, appalling losses,

people bursting into tears as they described what had happened. And the Russians completely outmatching. the Ukrainians. And the same is true. Everywhere else you look now, it's true in the Vremf Kassalian, it's true in Bachmert. Steady attrition of the Ukrainians, no breakthroughs. Some talk still about an amphibious crossing of the NEPA, but I'm going to suggest it's getting more difficult by the day. The weather is getting colder. Apparently the rains have started. It's getting more and more windy. I would have thought they're trying to move across the NEPA,

a contested river crossing in these conditions, against fortified positions on the Russian side. Well, some people are saying that it will be suicidal. So, Ukraine, bogged down, and that was the word by the way the London Times used, bogged down, unable to advance, stuck and losing men and machines all the time. And all the time, again, we have missile strikes, drone strikes across Ukraine. They happened again last night.

Massive damage being inflicted upon Ukrainian facilities, infrastructure every single day. And more and more talk about a huge Russian builder. The Russian Defence Minister Shoygu was inspecting troops who were in training to join the Russian forces. they're, you know, waging this war. And he's just had a, made a visit to the headquarters, the Russian headquarters in Rostov. And plausibly, he went there so that the Russian commanders could explain their plans.

And one must assume now that these are offensive plans. So that's the situation on the front lines. Ukraine has suffered, is suffering. A major strategic defeat. the offensive has failed in all respects. There's no sign of any progress. The losses have been appalling and the initiative is now passing to the Russians.

And that is what is shaping everything. Ukraine had achieved some kind of breakthrough. If it had broken through to the sea of Azov, if it had recaptured Mahmoud, if it had achieved something big like that, We would be talking in a completely different way today. And we would be seeing Western leaders and Western governments in entirely different discussions.

Now, the fact is, the leaders in the West, what are they finding? They're out of ammunition. NATO has admitted as much. They've got no more ammunition to give Ukraine. Ukraine is still using more ammunition than the West is producing. stocks have been critically depleted. Britain, the British military are now reporting back, they've got nothing more to give to Ukraine.

Britain is out of tanks, it's out of self-propelled guns, it's out of ammunition, it's probably out of stormshadders as well. They can't give any more. The Germans, I suspect the same. The Americans, well, probably they still have a little more to give. they have to worry all the time about China, about all their various problems around the world. The enthusiasm to go on giving is diminishing.

Economic problems are growing in Europe. Europe is in recession. There are stresses in the United States within the economy. Interest rates are going to remain higher for longer than people expected. That's causing more stress in Europe. It's probably causing more stress in the United States. And enthusiasm for supporting this war in the United States especially has dwindled away. Americans are looking at this and they're saying, why?

What for? Why are we giving our tax dollars to Ukraine all the time when we're not looking after our own situation? And the result is that Congress is now becoming increasingly unwilling, or at least a powerful faction with the impact. Congress is now becoming increasingly unwilling to agree to further authorisations of funding for Ukraine. And now that's beginning to sort of look a bit more, you know, permanent than I thought was the case a few days ago. The United States might not be able to go on funding Ukraine to the same extent as it has

done for much longer. Ukraine is apparently on the eve will be running out of money to pay civil servants in November and from then it will start to cascade downwards because as we've discussed many times the Ukrainian economy has essentially ceased to exist what exists in Ukraine now is not a functioning economy it is infusions of American and European

financial support that are keeping the currency stable and are enabling military salaries and civil service salaries to be paid and that might be coming to an end and the Europeans who've gone out on an extraordinary limb who have committed everything to supporting this war who've agreed to sanctions that have been disastrous in terms of losing energy, losing markets upon themselves, are now finding themselves in a disastrous situation where, having made all these sacrifices, having invested so much in this conflict, it looks as if the Americans might be prepared to walk away in disgust from the whole affair, leaving the Europeans in the lurch and the Ukrainians also.

And the Europeans are desperate. They're running around. They're trying to find shells where they can find them. Money, as you said, under the sofas. The administration, which is in Washington, which is exposed in the same way, is trying to do the same thing. And, of course, for the Zelensky government, this is now an existential issue. I'm going to say that if this situation sticks in the United States with funding, then, I mean, all this talk that we've been having, all these.

clever attempts by people like Jake Sullivan to try and get a freeze sorted out on the front lines and all of that, that becomes completely empty now because well, nobody will be interested in that. We would be looking instead at a collapse over the next few months.

Yeah. No, no freeze. No getting this conflict to November 2024, it's not going to happen. Exactly. I mean, you know, Sullivan must be freaking out. Lincoln must be freaking out. I imagine the entire DNC is probably freaking out for this, because the last thing they want is a collapse, which is going to be a hundred times worse than what they saw with Afghanistan. And that's going to, that's going to be on the Democrats watch. It's to be on Biden's watch this is going to happen. I mean, this is an election disaster. Absolutely.

For the Democrat Party, yeah. So, okay, the big counteroffensive was, I mean, I didn't even think it was going to be this much of a disaster. I figured Ukraine might get to the first line of defense, maybe the second. But, I mean, this has been a complete catastrophe. You know, the Europeans, why are they still insisting on backing Zelensky after this massive, huge catastrophe? I mean, this is the part that I can't wrap my head around sometimes is you gave him, you gave him a all your money, you gave him your entire economy, Germany, you've given up your entire future, Germany, and you bet it on this one man, a comedian, a comedian president, you bet your entire nation

on this one man. He's failed. Why do you insist on, uh, on continuing to back him? The same goes for the UK. You bet your entire, your entire economy on this guy, your entire military. Why do you have him in Spain, why are you hugging him? Why are you consoling him? Why are you assuring him? Fire him. Yeah. Well, because of, because of course they're frightened that if he goes down, they go down with him. And I don't mean, of course, Europe. I don't mean the European economies. I don't mean the people of Europe. I mean, they would be liberated if this whole thing finally ended. If Europe finally called a stop to this whole affair. I mean the people who have made these decisions, you know, Macron, Schultz, Ursula, you know, all of these others.

And it's interesting, by the way, to see where the power of decisions still exists. A country like Poland, it turns out, people there still have the ability to make decisions. The Poles have looked at this situation. They've seen what Zelensky's like. They've seen what, you know, these problems with refugees. in their own country, they've seen this problem with the grain, and they're able to change their, they're able to change and change their policy.

But the Europeans no longer can, nor can the British, it seems, because they built up Zelensky, they made Zelensky into this great hero, this, you know, Napoleon in Kiev, this Churchill figure who was going to, well, they made Zoluzzi, Napoleon, and they made Zelensky, Churchill. And now, and they based it around him.

They had him in the British Parliament, if you remember. He was there and they were all applauding here. It wasn't like in Congress, where in Congress, many people wouldn't applaud him or stand up in British Parliament, in Germany. Wherever he went in Europe, he was always greeted as this great hero. And now just telling him to go exposes them. And of course, in the United States, people are less exposed because they're farther away, and they can look at this mess, and they can look at this mess objectively and rationally, and say this isn't working, and we've got to call a stop,

and there's no point in throwing good money after bad, and depleting our weapons arsenals even further. They can say that in the United States. But in Europe, what can you say? What can Schultz and Habek and Beerbock turn round? and say to the already increasingly concerned and increasingly angry German people. They say, you know, we took away your energy,

we took away your markets, we ruined many of your businesses, and now we're asking Zelensky to go. I mean, it would be a political disaster for them. So they're sticking with it. It's exactly what, was it Duda? The Polish president said. it's a drowning man clings to other people and is pulling them down with him.

And that's exactly what's happening. Final question. Do you believe that Congress will get money to Ukraine? Okay, Jim Jordan looks like he'll be the House Speaker. That's how it looks. We don't know yet, but he's the frontrunner. He's not enthusiastic about getting money to Ukraine. But I believe, in my opinion, they will get some.

money to Ukraine, but I'm looking at this as either the last or close to the last aid that is getting to Ukraine. Do you think that's a proper assessment? I mean, I think we're coming towards the end, at least for the United States of money going to Ukraine or large amounts of money going to Ukraine. I agree. I mean, I think the thing to say is that within the United States, this was never a particularly popular war. Most Americans were not engaged in this. In Europe, people were to a much greater extent. I think people in Europe, in Germany, in Brussels especially, were really, some of them were enthusiastic about this.

And of course, there's a narrative that has developed, which is partly true that the United States did this to Europe in order to smash Europe, make it more dependent upon the United States. But I suspect in the minds of some European politicians, they wanted it to happen that way because they wanted to lock the United States more closely into Europe. And we're hoping that through this conflict and American power, they would be able once and for all to solve what they always think of as Europe. Russia problem.

So I think there was that element in Europe as well. So I think in the United States, people are looking at this. They were never engaged in it. They were never particularly enthusiastic about it. This is about the wider American population. And Republicans are always deeply skeptical

about what looks like Biden's war. There's all this talk of corruption. People are starting to hear about Burisma. They're starting to hear about all of these things. And they say, look, enough. We've got China to worry about. Because that's what some people are saying. And many

more people are saying, we've got Hawaii to think about, you've got the infrastructure to think about, we've got the southern border to worry about. We can't get ourselves, waste our time with these sort of things. And I think if Jim Jordan does become the speaker, I think that yes, it probably will be

the beginning of the end of funding for Ukraine. Funding from this point, we'll start to dwindle and dwindle a lot. The Pentagon is becoming impatient with the depletion of its military arsenal. And I think that we will start to see the Americans actually walking away. And this is where it becomes really dangerous for Europe, because of course the temptation for some European politicians will be to blame the Americans. And that is an incredibly dangerous thing to do because of course if they start doing

them, if they start telling America as well it's all your fault that Ukraine went down then at that point the gap between America and Europe will grow even further

and let me repeat again one of the reasons NATO exists Lord Ismi said it right at the beginning back in the 40s the reasons NATO was created was obviously to keep the Germans down and the Russians out, but first and foremost

to keep the Americans in. If Europeans start criticizing the United States in that kind of way and saying it's the Americans fault because they weren't prepared to stomp up even more money to keep this show in Ukraine on the road, I can see many Americans

becoming even more angry and even more disenchanted and so look enough enough we've had enough of these Europeans let's vote for Donald Trump and end this thing people in Brussels are going to have to in in in in a proper world people in Brussels my final thought is that people in Brussels would have to get fired yeah you know this is this is a massive debacle a massive debacle massive catastrophe but they won't they'll cling on as they always do and they'll all be the usual cliches and slogans and things that will try and, you know,

they're becoming more and more unpopular, but that won't prevent them clinging on because that's the iron rule of European politics. I mean, if they could survive the Eurozone crisis of 2009 to 12 or whenever it was, then they probably could survive anything. And the immigration crisis that happened afterwards, They will, the same pieces will always rearrange themselves. And in the meantime, Europe will continue to be logged into a cycle of decline. All right, the durand.locos.com.

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