The Duran Podcast
U.S. Phases Out Project Ukraine
All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is going on with Project Ukraine. We have the cancellation of the second peace summit. No big surprise there, who wants to host a second peace summit given the results of the first peace summit, the failure, the debacle, that was the first peace summit. We have the cancellation of the contact group meeting in Germany, where all the defense ministers and NATO member states heads of states, they get together in Germany and they talk about what's next with Project Ukraine. Zelensky was going to be at this meeting. This was going to be the big meeting. This was going to be the meeting where the United States decides on long range missile strikes into Russia. This was going to be the meeting where the United States decides on Ukraine's entry in to NATO and that was canceled. The excuse from the White House is Hurricane Milton, but why did Blinken have to return to the United States? How come he couldn't go in place of Biden? What does Blinken have to do with coordinating disaster relief and response for Milton? So, to me, that suggests that something more is going on here with the cancellation of the meeting in Germany. And finally, you have Zelensky's impromptu, I guess, tour of Europe now instead of going to Germany. He is now touring Europe. He was in Croatia. He is going to be in, he may already be in Italy at the time that this video was published, meeting with Maloney. He's going to be meeting with the Pope and we know that the Vatican was trying to broker some sort of ceasefire in Ukraine. He's then going to Germany to meet with all of Schultz. All of Schultz has changed his tune. With Ukraine, he's now talking about a ceasefire and some sort of a peace deal in Ukraine. And then we are getting news that he may also go to the UK or meet with Stommer. He's also going to meet with Macron and then he's going to end his European tour with a meeting with Keir. Stommer and the news is that Zelensky is looking for security guarantees from the United States and other European countries in exchange for a ceasefire deal. And instead of NATO, he is pressing the heads of states of European countries to fast-track Ukraine into the European Union. Even panic from Zelensky from the European leaders, they understand that the project Ukraine is winding down and definitely the United States is pulling away, the Biden White House is pulling away from the project Ukraine. As we said in a previous video, the resources and the attention appears to be heading towards a conflict or war with Iran. Anyway, I outlined a lot of things that are going on. But a lot of things are going on and all of them point to a conclusion with project Ukraine. The big question that I have, as you build on everything that I've said, is what does Russia do? What does Putin do? As all of this stuff is going to be directed towards Russia? Everything that's going on is eventually it's going to have to be presented to Putin and to Russia. What did they do? Anyway. Absolutely. I think you've summed it up. I mean, the first thing to say is you're absolutely correct. I mean, the Armstrong meeting was being built up as an absolute make-all-break meeting. This is where Zelensky was going to, again, present his victory plan. Now, he met with Biden a short time ago in Washington, then before that, Biden had met with Starmer. We were told that both Zelensky and Starmer presented their respective plans. Zelensky presented his victory plan. Starmer presented his proposal for long-range missile strikes on Russia. The Biden White House postponed both decisions to the Ramstein meeting. Now, that Ramstein meeting isn't happening. You know, Starmer and Zelensky told, "Wait for Ramstein. Wait for this meeting on the 12th of October. That's when the decisions are going to be made and there isn't going to be a meeting and the decisions are not going to be made." Now, that, in my mind, is conclusive. It tells you that the Americans do not want to make this decision. They do not want to authorize long-range missile strikes on Russia. In fact, there's been a further statement from the Pentagon, which says repeats again that the policy on long-range missile strikes is not changing. So that's one thing they're not prepared to do and they're not prepared to discuss accelerated NATO entry for Ukraine. So all of this is now ruled out. So Zelensky, as you absolutely correctly say, he's failed with the Americans. So now he's traveling around Europe, he's trying to get the Europeans to step in and take over from the Americans. So he wants entry into the EU, accelerated entry into the EU, which would be a catastrophe for the EU economically. Many EU states have indicated very clearly that they do not really like the idea of Ukraine joining the EU at all. Poland apparently is having kittens over this, I mean, the funding for Ukraine for the Ukrainian farmers would bankrupt the Polish farmers. The French don't like this idea either, there would be massive opposition. It's morbidly impossible to see how accelerated EU entry is possible. So he's not going to get those, that accelerated EU entry that he wants. You get promises that they're going to look into this and they're going to do all of these things, but it's not going to happen, certainly not any time soon. And beyond that, he's looking for the Europeans to provide him with security guarantees, which without the Americans, the Europeans are in no position to give, no European country, no coalition of European countries can take on the Russians without the Americans. So this is in effect closure. Now, you asked me what are the Russians going to make? Has any already signed security guarantees, Alexei real quick, I mean, he's already signed like 30 security guarantees, hasn't he? Absolutely, all kinds of agreements with all kinds of countries. And we've seen how, you know, what they amount to, I mean, they're just scraps of paper as we pointed out at the time that they would take seriously. So he's traveling around, he's begging for help, he's begging for money, we've had a story appear in Corriero de la Serra in Italy, which says that he's now looking for accelerated new EU entry and is prepared to freeze the conflict on that basis. And of course, won't recognize Russian control, you know, de Jure that these territories that he's that the Russians are occupied are going to be part of Russia, but he wants accelerated EU entry. There's an, there's another article in El Mundo, which tells us something completely different that Zelensk is going around saying that he's actually not still not prepared to freeze the conflict and that he's not prepared to make any kind of concessions to the Russians at all. He wants everybody instead still to go around and support his peace summit. The peace and his peace plan, the peace summit, as you rightly said, was still born, it never happened. Nobody would even agree to host it, let alone attended, so it was never going to happen. So he's traveling around Europe, you know, with a begging bowl, asking people for help. As far as the Russians are concerned, they see all of this, they hear all of this, they see what the US is doing, they are well aware of the situation obviously on the battle fronts and the fact that they're winning the war, which now everybody acknowledges and the Russians have set out their position as clearly as it is possible for them to do. We've had an interview that Lavrov has just given to Newsweek in which he has set out clearly what the Russian conditions are, that Ukraine must not only withdraw from the four regions and Crimea, but formally recognize them as Russian. It must agree to be a neutral state, without nuclear weapons, it must demilitarize, it must take steps against the hardliners in Ukraine, and it must restore full rights to Russians, or proposals that Zelensky himself cannot accept, and then of course, Lavrov threw in something else, he said that all the sanctions must be lifted. Now some are saying that that means sanctions that Ukraine has imposed on Russia. I think, remember, Lavrov was talking to Newsweek, I think Lavrov meant all sanctions, including the ones that the West have imposed, and if that's right, that obviously is a demand that the Western powers will never agree to. So there we are, I mean, they won't agree to recognize these territories as Russia, they won't agree to lift the sanctions, I think the Russians sent victory, they can sniff victory now, and they see this traveling caravan of Zelensky scuttling around Europe, they understand exactly what you said, that this is the actions of an increasingly desperate man. They see what has happened with Ramesztoin, they've drawn their own conclusions, and they're just going to continue fighting and continue the war, and they've made their conditions clear, and I don't think they're going to move from them, and why would they? Yeah, why would they, I mean, you know, the West, or at least Zelensky now, he's traveling around Europe and he's proposing all of these ideas, whether you believe Italian media, whether you believe Spanish media, he's trying to figure a way out of this mess, but he shouldn't be meeting with the Europeans, what he should be doing is opening up channels of communication with Russia, perhaps via China, or via India. I mean, he's traveling in the wrong direction. The Europeans, the Europeans are panicking too, we're getting reports from the Guardian saying that NATO is in a paddock now to create a NATO bank and make it Trump-proof, so that the money continues to flow in NATO, they see the riding on the wall. The European Union, they're accelerating this $35 billion loan, which is part of the, or was part of this $50 billion loan, which the US was supposed to take part in, obviously the US is not interested in getting involved in a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, especially now, given Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, if the US was to put one penny into the project of Ukraine, it was to become public and promoted in the mainstream media, American citizens would be absolutely furious. But here we see the European Union trying to find a way to put money together, perhaps the last amount of money before the whole thing collapses. So Zelensky is going in the complete opposite direction as far as resolving this conflict, which leads me to believe, at the end of the day, the conflict will be resolved by Russia militarily and the collective west is just going to allow Ukraine to collapse. I imagine that's going to be what the end result will be, now it could be a new government in Kiev that Russia has influence over. It could be something else that happens, but it's clear as day that the Biden White House is done with Ukraine. Maybe they don't want to be done with Ukraine, but the powers that be are telling the Biden White House, we're going to be looking at the Middle East now, and we need to not even wrap this up, just disengage from it, just avoid Zelensky altogether, just avoid him. The last point is the absolutely crucial one, because it is not just the Biden White House, it is America. America has invested heavily in Ukraine, but not over invested in the way that the Europeans have. And America has said, look, this hasn't worked. This isn't popular in America, in the United States. The American people are not keen on this project. It's time to walk away, Zelensky himself is not a popular figure in the United States, except with a small group of Congress people who are fervid anti-Russian hawks and a small group of Neocons. The Pentagon is unhappy because its resources are being drained by this wall, and the Americans have just made this decision that the time has come to call a stop. And they're walking away, and without the Americans, the Europeans are having all this anguish, they're wringing their hands in despair, but there is nothing they can do. They don't have the military power to deter the Russians, and they know it. The idea of them floating loans to support Ukraine by themselves without the Americans is already a confession of failure, and it isn't going to work, and they too can see the writing on the wall, and it is a disaster for all kinds of European politicians who led their people, who led their countries into this disaster, but that was their mistake. They let themselves be lured into this wall, into this conflict with the Russians to Europe's massive detriment, and they didn't think it through. They didn't work out how it would end. They didn't consider the possibilities, and now they are faced with the disaster that they have. As for Zelensky, my own personal view about him is this. I think at some point at some deep level, probably he and the people around him know that the only way out of their problems is to talk to the Russians. The Russians have made this point repeatedly. We're prepared to sit down to the Ukrainians, we're prepared to negotiate it out. We've explained what our conditions are, but that doesn't mean we are not prepared to talk to the Ukrainians, we're even prepared to talk to Zelensky himself. But, what he has to do is he's got to cancel his law, which prohibits negotiations with us, and how can we talk with him, unless he does that, and Zelensky refuses to do that. He's talking about a diplomatic solution without negotiations, I think he said this, which is a crazy idea. He can't bring himself to negotiate with the Russians. I think at some fundamental level, probably he understands that doing that would be a terrible confession to his people, of the disastrous mistake he made in April 2022, when he walked away from Istanbul. But beyond that, he knows also that if he does this, well, he's going to have all the radicals and the hardliners and all of those be coming off of him, and that is absolutely not what he wants. He's more afraid of them than he is of the Russians. So, he's going to go around Europe, he's going to talk about these things, immediate entry into NATO, well, that's been ruled out. Immediate entry into the EU, the Europeans won't rule that out, he quite the same categorical way that there's spin, hedge, pretend, but it won't happen, and I think Zelensky deep down knows it. He'll demand more weapons, he knows those weapons won't come, he'll demand more deep strikes, he won't, he knows that won't happen either. He won't negotiate with the Russians, and the war will be decided on the battlefield. That's where I think we're heading. Yeah, the Europeans with the EU membership, they're going to string Ukraine and Zelensky along, and Zelensky, he's going to take the statements from the Europeans, he's going to package them differently, and he's going to string the Ukrainian people along in order to drag out the war a little bit longer in order for him to find some sort of way out of this mess, there is no other way out of this mess other than talking to Russia, going to China, going to India, and trying to figure out a way to talk to Russia, and going back to his fear of the Bandarites, perhaps the only country, the only countries, maybe that could safeguard Zelensky and his administration is Russia and are the bricks, I'm not saying this is a guarantee, but I don't see any other way out of it for him, and the Europeans, Olaf Shultz, he's finally understanding that it's over, he's now talking about calling Putin, not Zelensky talking about calling Putin, Olaf Shultz is finally talking about calling Putin and negotiating, he's about three years late, but even the most incompetent of EU leaders, Shultz is now talking about getting in contact with Russia and with Putin. Yes, except of course that he has nothing to offer, he's not prepared to tell... He's three years late. He's three years late, exactly, I mean, to the extent that I can understand what he's proposed all this, he wants to get the Russians to attend this peace summit, which hasn't happened. Again, why would the Russians agree, it's pointless, it is far too late now, and to be straight forward about this, ideally the Russians are interested in talking to Shultz, they're in no hurry to agree to the call. So it's game over, the Americans are walking away, they can, the American media can simply stop talking about Ukraine, which is what they will do exactly what you discussed, spoke about way back in 2022, when it all falls apart they'll simply switch off and move onto the next topic, which is what will happen. America itself minimally affected, but what happens, in immediate terms, the Europeans aren't going to break with the Americans over this, how can they? The Europeans aren't in a position to break with the Americans at all, and so the Americans are going to walk away, they've got other more pressing things, they've got the Middle East to worry about, China to worry about, all of these other issues they've concerned themselves with, the Europeans left hanging out to dry and Zelensky himself in an impossible position where I think deep down he probably does know what he needs to do, but he will never do it. Yeah, the Europeans, even with the US dumping all of this on them, they have no choice but to stick with the US, because no one wants to deal with the Europeans anymore, with the EU anymore, I mean they've tied themselves so deeply into the United States and into the neoconside of the United States, that's the problem. The Europeans have become neocons, the entire EU bureaucracy has become neocons, and they're now completely tied into the neoconsideology of the US, and even with the US shifting focus now on to the Middle East, the Europeans are not going to be able to break free from the neoconside US structure, and when you look at what's going on in Ukraine on the front lines, just to drive home the point that everything is collapsing, I was looking at a map that Brian Berlettik posted on X, which shows the situation in curse, okay the situation in Donbass is crumbling, that's crumbling, and village after village town after town seems to be falling every couple of hours it seems now, but when you look at curse, which was Zelensky's big PR move, I mean that was the big PR move where he was going to get money and weapons and long-range missiles and NATO entry and everything, he bet it all on curse. You look at a map, and this is a Ukraine live map, so they're trying to hide as much as they can of the situation in curse, but you see just the little plot of land that Ukraine is still occupying, and then you see the Russian forces just swallowing up all of Ukraine, and I'm thinking these Ukrainian soldiers in Russia are doomed, and then I'm thinking past that, and I'm looking at Kiev, once Russia swallows up the Ukrainian forces what's left of them in curse, it seems like they have a straight shot right towards Kiev and there's not going to be much to stop them. This is totally true, that is exactly correct, if we go back to all those discussions that we had some weeks ago, about how this was a trap that the Russians said, well maybe it was because that's how it's turning out, I mean it may be that the Russians didn't set it, it may be that the Ukrainians made it for themselves, but one way or the other coast was an extraordinary act of folly, it was the last desperate throw of a desperate man, and now that it's failed, he has nothing left. Just a final question with Kiev, what would it mean for Russia to, once it's done with Kursk, and it resolves that issue, what would it mean for the Russian military to move towards Kiev, I mean is that possible, is that what Zelensky is panicking about? I think he's terrified of this, I think this is something that he's absolutely terrified of, I think we discussed it in a recent programme, but the fact is we now know, because Stoltenberg and Naftali Bennett, the former NATO Secretary-General and the former Israeli Prime Minister have both told us that Zelensky was extremely frightened in the first days of the Russian operation, the ASMO, and that he fled into a bunker and it was terrified that the Russians were going to kill him or take him prisoner or something of that kind, and he's absolutely terrified of the Russians coming back to Kiev, this is his, in my opinion this is his big nightmare, he doesn't want to relive all that all over again, and he knows anyway that this time, this time, there would be no escape for him, so the Russians absolutely, I mean if they smash through the Ukrainian forces in Kursk and battle through Sumi region, which they can, by the way, they can reach Kiev, it's, the distance isn't so great, there are good roads leading from this area towards Kiev, they can do it, they did it in 2022, they can do it all over again, they will do it in far greater force, they have fleets of drones, they have electronic warfare systems, they have domination of the skies, all of which they didn't have in 2022, so yes, if it came to it, if that's what the Russians decided to do, they could be in Kursk, they could be in Kiev, and I'm going to say this, if they do that, if the Russians come to Kiev, I am not convinced that Zelensky himself or his government will stay, I think that quite plausibly this time, they will retreat to evolve, and at that point, Kiev resistance there could collapse, and then the Russians will have to decide what to do, do they proceed to a next Kiev, which might not be something that their allies want to see, did they try and set up an alternative government, who would be in that government, these are questions for another day. Yeah, okay, we're probably still a bit far off from that, if something like that happens, we don't even know if that scenario happens, yeah, exactly, anyway, alright, we will end the video there, the deran.locals.com, we are on rumble to see pitch you telegram Rockfin and twitter x and go to the deran shop, pick up some merch, like the shirts we are wearing in this video, the link to the deran shop is in the description box down below, take care. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]