The EU, UK, and Ukraine have outright rejected Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for ending the Ukraine conflict.
Meanwhile, Russia has surprisingly shown support for Trump's diplomatic efforts.
In this episode, The Duran breaks down what this major divide means for the future of the conflict and global geopolitics.
Is peace even possible — or is a deeper confrontation inevitable?
🔥 LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and HIT the notification bell for more sharp, independent analysis from The Duran!
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Meanwhile, Russia has surprisingly shown support for Trump's diplomatic efforts.
In this episode, The Duran breaks down what this major divide means for the future of the conflict and global geopolitics.
Is peace even possible — or is a deeper confrontation inevitable?
🔥 LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and HIT the notification bell for more sharp, independent analysis from The Duran!
#TheDuran
#Trump
#PeacePlan
#UkraineConflict
#Russia
#Geopolitics
#EU
#UK
#UkraineWar
#WorldNews
#BreakingNews
#PoliticalAnalysis
#GlobalPolitics
#Washington
#InternationalRelations
#TrumpPeacePlan
#ConflictResolution
#AlexanderMercouris
#AlexChristoforou
#RealNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00All right, Alexander, let's talk about the diplomacy that is taking place between the
00:05United States and Russia, between the United States and Ukraine, if you want to call it
00:12diplomacy, and the diplomacy taking place between the United States and Europe, the
00:20Europeans, who are very unhappy with the United States and are rejecting the US's
00:27recognition of Crimea, which is an odd thing to say, but the Europeans reject the United
00:34States's recognition of Crimea.
00:36Anyway, we have all kinds of diplomacy taking place.
00:39One day, it looks like it's making progress.
00:41The next day, it looks like there's no progress.
00:44How are you reading things?
00:46Well, this is the most chaotic and disorganized negotiation I've ever seen in my life in the
00:52world of diplomacy.
00:53Obviously, it's very difficult to understand exactly what's going on, because as you rightly
00:59say, it changes from one day to the next.
01:02And the major confusions ultimately come from Washington.
01:07Now, there's a number of things to say.
01:08Firstly, for the first couple of weeks after Donald Trump became president of the United
01:16States, the Americans focused on trying to get a ceasefire organized.
01:22That was what Zelensky was asked to do when he went to Washington in February, when there
01:29was that massive bust up in the Oval Office.
01:33He refused to agree to a ceasefire.
01:35If you remember, unless you got security guarantees from the Americans, the Americans said they were
01:40not in the business at that time of giving security guarantees.
01:44There was this huge row.
01:46He went away.
01:48There was then a follow up meeting in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where the Ukrainians came
01:53without Zelensky and the Americans got them to agree very unwillingly to endorse an unconditional
02:00ceasefire.
02:01Trump then contacted the Russians.
02:05Putin said no.
02:07He said an unconditional ceasefire doesn't make sense.
02:11He wanted the root causes of the problem addressed.
02:15In other words, he wanted a proper movement towards a final agreement to be put together.
02:24And then we've had other attempts by the Americans to set up other kinds of ceasefires.
02:29There was the ceasefire on the energy system in the attacks on the energy systems that never
02:35worked.
02:36We had Putin's attempt to get a ceasefire over the course of Easter.
02:41That didn't work either.
02:43Ceasefires have gone absolutely nowhere.
02:46And then suddenly, a couple of days ago, about a week ago, the Americans started to say
02:52that this is now make or break.
02:54We have to have a deal within done within a couple of days.
02:58A deal must be done.
03:01If the deal isn't done, then the United States will walk away.
03:05Trump has many priorities.
03:07The United States has many priorities.
03:10And suddenly, the Americans veered from trying to get a ceasefire to trying to discuss the
03:18substantive issues.
03:20In other words, addressing the kind of things that the Russians said needed to be looked at.
03:27The question of territories, the underlying issues of how the conflict is going to end.
03:35Anyway, suddenly, the Americans started to talk about those things.
03:38And they came up with a seven-point plan.
03:42And they presented it to the Ukrainians and the Europeans over the course of the last couple of days.
03:53There was a meeting first in Paris.
03:56And then there was supposed to be a follow-up meeting in London.
04:00Again, Zelensky was kept well away from the meeting in London.
04:06We then got information about what this American plan was.
04:12And it turned out that it was, in all essence, the Kellogg plan.
04:16It didn't differ from the Kellogg plan.
04:18Now, that could be because Trump, in fact, more likely than not, it's because Trump has always
04:23worked on the basis that the Kellogg plan would be the ultimate plan.
04:29That would be the one that would lead to the deal, the famous deal, the agreement.
04:35Or it could be that because the Russians were saying we've got to have something substantive to work on,
04:41we can't just talk about ceasefires because ceasefires don't work,
04:45that the Americans dusted off the only plan that they have, which is the Kellogg plan.
04:49I mean, that is a possibility, too.
04:51As I said, this is such a chaotic process that it's very difficult to know exactly what is happening here.
04:57Anyway, the point is, Zelensky then threw publicly the most extraordinary tantrum.
05:06He rejected the Kellogg plan in its entirety.
05:09There's been a lot of focus about Crimea, but he didn't just talk about Crimea.
05:16He insisted that all territory must be returned to Ukraine.
05:20He said that the only thing he's prepared to talk about is an unconditional ceasefire, nothing else.
05:25That's the only mandate that he's negotiators have.
05:31He insists that Ukraine must be allowed to enter NATO.
05:35He's taking all that stance.
05:38The Europeans, or at least the most powerful people in Europe,
05:44Ursula, Kaya Callas, obviously, Friedrich Merz, Macron, Starmer,
05:52they've all publicly sided with Zelensky.
05:56And right across the European media, you now have furious denunciations of Trump,
06:03of the United States, that this is appeasement, that this is surrender to the Russians,
06:08that the Kellogg plan is completely unacceptable,
06:11that we can't tolerate anything that rewards aggression,
06:15that there's never been any change in borders by force since the end of the Second World War.
06:23That is so completely untrue, by the way, in Europe,
06:26that, again, one wonders where these people, what planet these people are on.
06:32But anyway, all of that happened,
06:33and that looked as if the negotiations on Wednesday, such as they are,
06:39if they are even negotiations, had finally collapsed.
06:43And then, over the next couple of hours, even as Rubio and Wyckoff departed from the negotiations,
06:57we started to get messages from Trump which suggested that he still thinks
07:02that some kind of an agreement can be reached,
07:05and the suggestion that this is a make-or-break moment,
07:09that wasn't quite true after all.
07:13And then he published this true social post,
07:16which was critical of Zelensky,
07:19but nowhere near as critical of Zelensky as one might have expected.
07:24It doesn't address the fact that Zelensky has completely rejected,
07:31in all respects, the American plan, the Kellogg plan,
07:36the only plan the Americans have put forward.
07:38And we also had a further true social post from Trump,
07:44which criticises a missile strike on Kiev that the Russians have conducted.
07:48Again, it's not clear why this particular missile strike is attracting so much attention,
07:54given that there have been dozens of missile strikes on Kiev over the course of the war,
07:59and there is no ceasefire.
08:01And at the same time, we hear reports that Wyckoff is on his way to Moscow.
08:07It's not clear what Wyckoff is coming to Moscow for,
08:12because the plan, the Kellogg plan, has been rejected already by the Ukrainians.
08:21So he's coming empty-handed.
08:23But my best guess is that Trump is making one last attempt to try and get some movement,
08:29and he's sent Wyckoff to see whether Putin is going to make some concessions
08:33and try to get this whole process moving forward,
08:37because that's the only conceivable reason why I can see Wyckoff going to Moscow at this time.
08:42So this is not off-topic, but I think it is connected.
08:48As Wyckoff is in Moscow, there was a terrorist attack.
08:53It looks like it was a terrorist attack on a Russian military official, I believe a major general.
09:00And we don't have many details at the time of recording this video.
09:07But assuming that this has something to do with Ukraine,
09:13we've had these attacks on Russian military officials before in the past,
09:18and it was Ukraine, and a lot of reports claim that it was not only Ukraine,
09:26but it was specifically the military intel, Budanov's department that was orchestrating these things,
09:35assuming that this is what happened in this instance as well.
09:40Are any peace deals now officially off?
09:45Well, one would assume so, actually, because it looks to me that that assassination attempt,
09:53if there was one, which I think there probably was,
09:55I mean, you know, we rightly said, we haven't got all the details.
09:57We don't know yet.
09:58We just got the news.
09:59We just got the news as we were recording.
10:01But, I mean, it looks to me very, very likely that that was the purpose.
10:04Because this is where the whole thing now,
10:10the whole absurdity of this whole so-called negotiation is becoming transparently obvious.
10:18Because listening to Zelensky, when he spoke on Tuesday, following and tracking all of the things that he has said since then,
10:29he clearly doesn't want peace.
10:32He wants the war to continue.
10:35The fact that Ukraine is losing it is not really something that seems to worry him very much.
10:40But he wants the war to continue.
10:44And it looks to me as if he and the people around him, presumably including Budanov,
10:50are going to do everything they possibly can over the next couple of days to sabotage any movement towards peace.
10:56So, if they can assassinate a Russian general somewhere in Russia in order to derail the whole peace negotiation,
11:05they will do it.
11:07And, of course, quite plausibly, it will derail the peace negotiations.
11:12Now, I was reading just before we did this program an absolutely excoriating statement made by the Russian foreign ministry spokesman yesterday,
11:24Zaharova.
11:25And, I mean, it basically said this regime in Kiev is not interested in peace.
11:33And it went through all the whole story, the Minsk agreements, the breaches of the recent ceasefires.
11:40It looked to me very much as if the Russians anyway were preparing to tell all this to Witkow when he arrives in Moscow.
11:49And, of course, this attack will crystallize it.
11:58But whatever proposal is made to end the war, even one which objectively is as favorable to Ukraine as the Kellogg plan actually is.
12:12I mean, put aside all the hysteria, the anger, the accusations, the talk of surrender, the talk of appeasement,
12:22given the realities on the battlefield, given where we actually are in the war, given the stated Russian objectives.
12:29I mean, if the Kellogg plan is accepted at this point in time, it is a victory for Ukraine.
12:36I mean, it is or at least it is the best possible deal imaginable that Ukraine could have.
12:43I mean, the Russians, as they made already very clear, have enormous issues with the Kellogg plan.
12:48I mean, they've all but they've all but rejected it.
12:52But, you know, even then, the Ukrainians apparently don't want it.
12:58And I think it was what David Sachs, who said, you know, a person who takes the stance that Zelensky does,
13:06even on a topic like Crimea, which shouldn't really be open for discussion,
13:11because nobody ever expects Crimea to be returned to Ukraine.
13:15It's inconceivable that will ever happen if Zelensky is not prepared to make concessions,
13:22even on the issue of Crimea, that he's clearly not interested in peace at all.
13:27And even the president's son, the U.S. president's son, Donald Don Trump Jr., is endorsing that view.
13:35So, yes, I think quite plausibly this assassination attempt is an attempt to wreck the negotiations.
13:42And presumably it will wreck the negotiations.
13:46I don't understand why this process is being continued at all at the moment.
13:53I mean, it makes very little sense to me.
13:56Presumably Trump is so invested on trying to get some kind of deal done because he's boxed himself into the position
14:03where he can't move forward with the Russians on other matters unless there is a deal on Ukraine.
14:11That, you know, he just is dragging this thing out, trying to get a deal done.
14:18Whatever deal is done, the Ukrainians are now certain to reject it.
14:23Yeah, everything is misleading and is misdirection, it seems, smoke and mirrors from all sides, to be quite honest.
14:34Well, absolutely.
14:35Bloomberg, they put out an article claiming that Trump is sending Witkoff to Moscow in order to get Russia to accept Ukraine's right to military force.
14:46Nonsense.
14:47But there you have Bloomberg putting out nonsense type of articles.
14:50We had the Financial Times article, which was also nonsense about Putin accepting the – I forgot, what did he accept?
14:58The ceasefire, the freeze, the conflict.
15:01Nonsense, right?
15:03Yeah.
15:03Nonsense.
15:04It's – so you have the media misleading.
15:07Yes.
15:08Well, these are plants.
15:09These are clearly plants that somebody is making it to the media.
15:12People familiar with the matter, they say, right?
15:14People familiar with the matter, exactly.
15:16The point about the Bloomberg article about, you know, trying to get the Russians to agree to allow Ukraine to have military, you know, to build up their armed forces to whatever level that they wanted to, that would imply that the Russians have already rejected that.
15:36Well, we know they would do.
15:38And you would have said Witkoff?
15:39You would have said Witkoff to tell Putin this?
15:41Witkoff is going to sit down with Putin and say you're going to accept Ukraine having a military?
15:45Absolutely.
15:46Yes.
15:47The whole thing, as you said, the whole thing makes absolutely no sense at all.
15:51I mean, the whole thing makes no sense in any respect.
15:56As I said, there is massive misdirection going on.
16:00So it makes it very, very difficult to understand exactly what precisely is going on.
16:09Now, I'm going to make a guess.
16:10This is my best guess.
16:12I think that there is a deadline that Trump is working against, probably at the end of this month.
16:22By the end of this month.
16:24The point is, and there's been comments about this now from people within the British military, that the weapons, the arms, the shells supplied to Ukraine by Biden in the autumn are now almost run out.
16:38And if the war continues beyond that, Trump has to make a decision.
16:46Does he just cut Ukraine off or does he exercise his drawdown authority, which he has not done up to this point, to supply more weapons to Ukraine to keep the war going?
17:00Maybe in the hope that there will be more negotiations, or perhaps eventually does he go to Congress and ask for further appropriation?
17:10He's got to make that decision.
17:11And I think Donald Trump doesn't want to make that decision.
17:14I think he understands that there's going to be political damage for him, whatever decision he makes.
17:20And so I think he's pushing as hard as he can for an agreement to be made this month, because beyond that, he's going to be facing decisions in the United States, which are politically difficult.
17:33And I suspect that the Russians, up to a certain point, will try to help him.
17:42But I don't think they're going to make any fundamental concessions.
17:46And besides, why would they, given that, as we've seen, Zelensky is going to reject any proposal, any conceivable proposal, other than outright victory, which the Russians are not going to concede?
18:03Yeah, but going back to the whole misdirection point, wouldn't you say that the whole Kribea thing is misdirection?
18:13Absolutely.
18:13I mean, we're all talking about a concession, let's call it a concession, which no one is asking for.
18:22And no one really cares about it.
18:25And the Europeans, they're making it as if we reject the U.S.'s decision to recognize Kribea.
18:33That's what the Europeans are saying.
18:34We reject the U.S.'s decision.
18:37So that's bonkers.
18:38That's crazy.
18:39But that's the Europeans.
18:40And Zelensky is saying, I can't accept the U.S.'s recognition.
18:46I reject the U.S.'s recognition of Kribea because it goes against the Ukraine constitution.
18:51What has Zelensky ever cared about the Ukraine constitution?
18:54And who is Zelensky to reject the U.S.'s recognition of Kribea?
18:59Well, what relevance does the Ukrainian constitution have to what the United States does?
19:04I mean, the United States is not bound by the terms of Ukraine's constitution.
19:09Zelensky is the U.S.'s puppet and not the other way around.
19:12I mean, it's nonsense.
19:13And then the whole concession of Kribea makes zero sense because the Russians never asked for it.
19:19They never talked about it.
19:21They don't really care if the U.S. recognizes Kribea or not.
19:25They couldn't give two flying Fs if the U.S. recognizes Kribea.
19:30The same goes for sanctions relief.
19:32The Russians never asked for sanctions relief.
19:33We're coming up to one year, Alexander, one year from June 2024 when Putin clearly put out his terms.
19:43Clearly, he spelled all his terms out.
19:46Yes.
19:46No one talks about it in the Trump administration.
19:48No one talks about it in the collective West mainstream media.
19:51No.
19:51We talk about it all the freaking time, but no one else wants to talk about Putin's terms.
19:58They deliberately ignore his terms.
20:01Deliberately.
20:02Yes.
20:02So my point is that this is all one big misdirection.
20:06Why is this all one big misdirection?
20:08I don't know.
20:09And I have to also say something else.
20:11Before you comment, Lavrov was on Face the Nation.
20:15Yes.
20:15Which is significant.
20:17Yes.
20:17Because it does show that the collective West mainstream media is now actually allowing Russian officials to give their side of the story, which is very, very significant.
20:29Yes.
20:30But Lavrov, he came out in support of Trump.
20:35Yes, I know.
20:35He said that Trump is the only leader that has recognized the root causes.
20:39The only leader in the world, he said.
20:41Yes.
20:41That recognized the root causes.
20:43Anyway, your thoughts on all this?
20:44Because something is, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors misdirection.
20:48Why, I think, is the million-dollar question.
20:52Where is this heading to?
20:53Well, who knows?
20:54The million-dollar question.
20:54Yeah.
20:55Who knows?
20:55I mean, there is a frantic effort to try to prevent any kind of peace settlement and any kind of understanding being reached between the Americans and the Russians.
21:05And I think this is one, obviously.
21:07But can I just say something?
21:08When you talk about Crimea, you're absolutely correct.
21:11First of all, it's important to stress this.
21:13Zelensky didn't just reject the point about Crimea that was in the Kellogg, in this proposal, this American proposal.
21:24He rejected the entire proposal.
21:28Why people are focusing on Crimea so much is really very strange because everything else was rejected as well.
21:39I mean, he was not prepared to accept any part of the proposal that was made.
21:46And in some ways, the most substantive and concerning point that Zelensky made was the one about Ukraine having the right to join NATO.
22:00Because the Americans are saying that's off the table.
22:03The Russians are saying that's absolutely unacceptable.
22:07Zelensky is insisting on it.
22:09And so, by the way, are the Europeans.
22:13So, I mean, that that is much more important than the Crimean issue.
22:18And there's also a huge amount of lying about the Crimean issue.
22:21Absolutely.
22:22But the Russians haven't asked for the Americans to recognize Crimea as Russian.
22:29There's never been a Russian demand.
22:32The Financial Times, by the way, in an editorial today, admits that it actually admits the point you've just made that, you know, this is a concession that's been made to the Russians that they never asked for.
22:45So, I mean, it's meaningless.
22:47There's also an extraordinary amount of rhetoric, especially in the British media, about how this would reward Russia for using military force to change borders.
23:03And that this has never happened before since the end of the Second World War.
23:10Well, you live in Cyprus, which is part of Europe.
23:14You know, that isn't true.
23:18We had a Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
23:22The Turkish army still occupies 40 percent of Cyprus.
23:26But, you know, that that is an event that, of course, we can't talk about.
23:32Well, I have to correct you because the EU is going to approve the 18th sanctions package against Turkey, Alexander.
23:39That's right.
23:39That's right.
23:40Right.
23:41That's right.
23:42Well, not not the 18th.
23:43Because we're going all the way back to 1974, the 118th.
23:47The 118th.
23:48Yeah, I mean, you know, it's.
23:49Anyway, go on, go on.
23:51But I mean, you know, the lying, the misrepresentation, the deception is just off the scale.
23:58Now, I think, as I said, I saw we only got fragmentary bits of this interview that Lavrov gave.
24:07What Lavrov basically said is we haven't gotten agreed because the American Trump, he was asked.
24:11Trump says there's a deal.
24:13Lavrov says there isn't a deal.
24:14There's still work to do.
24:16There's points to still agree.
24:18There's things that needs to be fine tuned.
24:21But you're absolutely right.
24:23He supported Trump.
24:24He said Trump is the only leader up to now who has actually addressed the question of the root causes of the conflict.
24:30The Russians are saying this all the time, by the way, that this is one reason why they are happy to work with Trump.
24:37I have a certain respect for Trump because he's the only person who's looking at the substantive issues.
24:44It's absolutely true.
24:46But, you know, ultimately, the Russians can help Trump up to a point.
24:54The decision, the final decision about what to do must be made by him.
25:00There's only so much the Russians can do if Zelensky is rejecting any proposal, which he clearly is.
25:08And that is not going to change if the Europeans are supporting Zelensky.
25:15Even Boris Johnson, supposedly Donald Trump's friend, is now criticizing Trump and supporting Zelensky.
25:23If the Europeans are going to support Zelensky, then, I mean, Trump should realize that this is over, that he's not going to get peace in Ukraine.
25:36He's not going to even get any kind of agreement in Ukraine that can last or that can work.
25:46And he should do that, which he says he wants to or intends to do, which is walk away.
25:55Maybe that's part of this entire process.
25:58You know, Trump is positioning the United States as the mediator, which everyone knows is not true.
26:04Everyone knows the U.S. is a party to the conflict, including the New York Times,
26:08which outlined the entire thing in excruciating detail, how the U.S. is at war with Russia.
26:16Okay, so everyone knows that's a fact.
26:18But, you know, Trump, the marketing guy, the messaging guy, he has positioned the U.S.,
26:24at least from a marketing messaging standpoint, as the mediator.
26:29Yes.
26:29If you haven't been following the conflict in Ukraine, as we have, as our viewers have,
26:35if you're just some person who, you know, watches the news every now and now and again,
26:40you would probably say, okay, the U.S. is a mediator.
26:42Yeah.
26:43You would believe it.
26:44Yes.
26:44And that's a majority of the population, right?
26:48Not everyone in the world is hyper-focused on this conflict, as we are and our reviewers are.
26:54So he's done that.
26:55But he is saying that if he was president, this war would have never happened.
27:01He says that over and over again.
27:03Okay.
27:03Correct.
27:04He's right about it.
27:05He's right about that.
27:06But he did send the javelins when he was president as well.
27:08So he did escalate.
27:10Yes.
27:10Okay.
27:11Rubio is now also saying that we didn't start this war.
27:15He said it the other day.
27:16Yeah.
27:16We didn't start this war.
27:17He said we had nothing to do with this war.
27:19Yeah.
27:19Trump has also said that.
27:20He said this is Biden's war.
27:21He started saying that.
27:22Now Trump is also going further back in time, and he's talking about Obama.
27:27Now that we're talking about Crimea, he's talking about the history of how Crimea ascended into the Russian Federation via Obama.
27:38Yes.
27:39So he's maybe adding some context as to why Crimea is part of the Russian Federation.
27:47And then I'll end my point here with Lavrov during that Face the Nation interview.
27:54He also asked the reporter, when the reporter pressed Lavrov, are we going to get a deal in the next week?
28:01Lavrov said, you don't trust your own president?
28:04I mean, I don't know.
28:08How do you analyze all of this?
28:12Is the plan to walk away?
28:14Is the plan to not walk away?
28:17I mean, I don't know.
28:17Is the plan to walk away?
28:17Is there perhaps a deal being worked out by the Russians and the Americans at the moment?
28:22Maybe that's why Witgov is in Moscow.
28:24But every other comment from every other Russian official, Zaharova, Peskov yesterday, Shoigu yesterday, argues otherwise.
28:36So, I mean, it's difficult to see.
28:39I mean, I think that one of the things that I would say about Lavrov's comment is that he was also asked whether it was really true that Witgov was on his way to Moscow.
28:48And he said, you know, your president is saying that.
28:52You don't trust your president on this.
28:55True.
28:55Bear in mind that he also said.
28:57It was back-to-back questions.
28:58It was back-to-back.
28:58Exactly.
28:59And that excerpt looked to me as if it was heavily edited anyway.
29:04So, we haven't been provided with a whole text of the interview.
29:09And that might be important to get as well.
29:12But anyway, let's not waste too much time on this interview.
29:16I can't clearly see where this is going.
29:22But logically, logically, this is the moment when Trump has to make the decision to walk away.
29:30Because, as he said himself, Zelensky, who is, remember, America's ally, doesn't want a deal.
29:37He's made that absolutely clear.
29:39He doesn't want peace in any form.
29:41He's no different from the rest of the Ukrainian leadership in this.
29:46There is no one else important in Ukraine who is likely to take over from him, who would take a different stance to the one that Zelensky himself is taking.
29:57The Europeans also are going to back Zelensky no matter what.
30:04And they're going to spread all sorts of false stories about, you know, Crimea, about negotiations with the Russians, about the Financial Times article, about, you know, the freeze on the existing front lines, the Bloomberg article about getting the Russians to agree to allow Ukraine to build up its armed forces to whatever extent it wants.
30:27All of those sorts of things. So the Ukrainians are never going to change.
30:34I come back to what I said. I think that Trump does want to walk away or probably has come to reach that point.
30:41But he's also recently been going out of his way to say again and again and again that he's not on anybody's side, that he is completely neutral.
30:52So I think he wants to walk away. But in a situation where he says that neither side wants peace, neither the Ukrainians nor the Russians.
31:03And I think this is really what this is now about so that he won't have to.
31:07He can walk away. He can then make his decision so that nobody's interested in peace.
31:13He doesn't clearly doesn't want to impose more sanctions on the Russians.
31:18Notice that all the talk about that is gone. All the talk about more sanctions against the Russians has also gone.
31:27So he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to continue involvement in the war.
31:33I think probably there is a lot of theatre and choreography here.
31:40I don't really see much evidence of much in the way of a genuine negotiation taking place.
31:45I think that this is all about the United States.
31:50Doing an exit. Certainly, that is apparently what the British think.
31:55And I read comments today in the media, in the British media, that the Ukrainians think that also.
32:03And that the Ukrainians now believe that within a week's time, further American aid to Ukraine will have ended.
32:10That's what Bill is saying, too.
32:12Yeah.
32:12And then we got the report about the U.S. blocking the Taurus.
32:15Exactly.
32:16Missiles as well.
32:17So that's indicative.
32:19And Trump was asked in the White House about what concessions is Russia making?
32:26And Trump said Russia's going to stop taking over the country.
32:32It's going to stop taking over Ukraine.
32:34That's the concession.
32:35I mean, that was a pretty big statement from Trump.
32:37He didn't talk about Russia's giving this or that.
32:40And if they don't give this or that, I'm going to place sanctions or anything like that.
32:43He just said it straight up.
32:44Straight up.
32:45He just said, look, the concession is that Russia doesn't take over all of Ukraine.
32:49That's the big concession.
32:51Yes.
32:51You know, that might even be true.
32:54I mean, it's quite plausible.
32:57It is true.
32:58But what I mean by that is that the Russians might actually, I mean, they could give, they
33:05could say to Trump, look, even if the negotiations break down, we are prepared to state publicly
33:12in some kind of document that you can use if you want to use that.
33:17It is not our plan to take over the whole of Ukraine.
33:20I mean, they might that might be a something, a gesture that the Russians might make.
33:27Of course, it might be overtaken by events.
33:30If the war goes on, if Zelensky refuses, goes on refusing to negotiate, you know, things
33:37might play out differently.
33:38But the Russians could say, look, it's never was our intention to take over the whole of
33:45Ukraine.
33:46It isn't our intention.
33:48Now, we can give you this promise.
33:50You could take it away.
33:51You could show it to whomever you want.
33:53And you could say that that's the big concession that we have made, or at least big gesture that
33:58we have made.
33:59Now, just to wrap up the video, your thoughts on NATO CEO in Washington trying to convince
34:06Trump to not ditch Ukraine and the reports, or the reports from the Telegraph, which said
34:14that Stammer and Macron, they're, they're pulling back from their whole peacekeeper reassurance,
34:21whatever it was called, reassurance forces in Ukraine, whatever they're pulling back from
34:25that.
34:26What do you think that's all that stuff signals?
34:28Well, I mean, first of all, it signals, the last point signals the collapse of the coalition
34:33of the willing.
34:34In fact, they're going further because they're now, the British are now blaming the French.
34:39I forget, this is probably, you have to drill through the British media to see this.
34:43But the British are saying this whole crazy idea of deploying troops into Ukraine at all
34:49wasn't our idea.
34:50It wasn't the idea of our glorious leader, Keir Starmer.
34:54It was all Macron.
34:55Macron suggested it.
34:57We were for something much, much more modest.
35:01So clearly what's happened is that without an American guarantee, none of the other NATO
35:10countries that have forced military forces were prepared to commit.
35:13The British and French were not prepared to go by themselves.
35:16That would have been a force of five, eight thousand men at most.
35:22It would have been incredibly vulnerable to Russian attack.
35:26The Russians have been making statement after statement after statement that it is unacceptable.
35:31The British military are known to be solidly opposed to this whole plan.
35:37So it looks like it's collapsed.
35:38But, of course, we still have talk about sending trainers into Ukraine.
35:44No fly zones over Western Ukraine.
35:47That is still there.
35:48So, you know, that that that hasn't that hasn't unfortunately gone away completely.
35:57What Rutter, Macron and Starmer are still trying to do is to get Donald Trump to agree to become Joe Biden.
36:08They want him they their optimal position is to try to get back to what Joe Biden was doing.
36:19Unlimited support for Ukraine, unlimited support for Ukraine's demands.
36:25People talk all the time about Russia's maximalist demands.
36:30They're not maximalist demands.
36:32If you look at the situation on the battlefronts, they're not maximalist demands.
36:37Maximalist demands would be true if the Russians demanded things that are completely impossible.
36:44It is Zelensky who is demanding things that are completely impossible.
36:49Those are maximalist demands.
36:51But anyway, total support for Zelensky's maximalist demands, unlimited military support for Ukraine.
37:00Now, the British and the French, Macron and Starmer and Rutter must know at some level that they're not going to get the Americans to do this.
37:11I mean, it is politically impossible.
37:13I would have thought for Trump to go back to the policies of Joe Biden, that they want to be able to say when it's all over and when Ukraine collapses, that it was the Americans who betrayed Ukraine.
37:29It was Donald Trump.
37:30He's the man who's entirely to blame for the whole thing, because he pulled the plug from under Zelensky, this heroic figure.
37:39And it was he who engaged in this Chamberlain-like appeasement of, you know, the dictator in the Kremlin.
37:51And we in Britain, we in France, we in Europe did all that we could.
37:57But it was the Americans.
37:58It was this cowardly man in the White House who's probably still got connections to Russia.
38:03But that was what he did, because I can't seriously believe that at this stage in the game, they generally, honestly, truly believe that Trump is going to reverse course completely and start backing Zelensky to the hilt and Ukraine to the hilt and recommit to supporting Ukraine and impose more sanctions on Russia and do all of those things, which is so completely contrary to everything he's saying and appears to want to do.
38:33Yeah, right.
38:34But anything is possible.
38:36We'll see.
38:36It's a roller coaster, yeah.
38:38All right.
38:38We will end the video there.
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