EU, UK, Ukraine reject Trump plan, Russia supports Trump peace efforts
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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 Europeans,
00:21who 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 States's
00:35recognition of Crimea. Anyway, we have all kinds of diplomacy taking place. One day,
00:40it looks like it's making progress. The next day, it looks like there's no progress.
00:45How are you reading things? Well, this is the most chaotic and disorganized
00:49negotiation I've ever seen in my life in the world of diplomacy. It's very difficult to understand
00:56exactly what's going on, because, as you rightly say, it changes from one day to the next.
01:02And the major confusions ultimately come from Washington. Now, there's a number of things to
01:08say. Firstly, for the first couple of weeks after Donald Trump became president of the United States,
01:17the Americans focused on trying to get a ceasefire organized. That was what Zelensky was asked to do
01:25when he went to Washington in February, when there was that massive bust up in the Oval Office. He
01:33refused to agree to a ceasefire. If you remember, unless he got security guarantees from the Americans,
01:39the Americans said they were not in the business at that time of giving security guarantees.
01:44There was this huge row. He went away. There was then a follow-up meeting in Jeddah,
01:50in Saudi Arabia, where the Ukrainians came without Zelensky, and the Americans got them to agree
01:56very unwillingly to endorse an unconditional ceasefire. Trump then contacted the Russians.
02:05Putin said no. He said an unconditional ceasefire doesn't make sense. He wanted the root causes
02:13of the problem addressed. In other words, he wanted a proper movement towards a final agreement to be
02:23put together. And 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 worked.
02:36We had Putin's attempt to get a ceasefire over the course of Easter. That didn't work either.
02:43Ceasefires have gone absolutely nowhere. And then suddenly, a couple of days ago, about a week ago,
02:50the Americans started to say that this is now make or break. We have to have a deal done within a couple
02:58of days. A deal must be done. If the deal isn't done, then the United States will walk away.
03:05Trump has many priorities. The United States has many priorities. And suddenly, the Americans veered
03:13from trying to get a ceasefire to trying to discuss the substantive issues. In other words,
03:21addressing the kind of things that the Russians said needed to be looked at. The question of territories,
03:30the underlying issues of how the conflict is going to end. Anyway, suddenly, the Americans started to
03:37talk about those things. And they came up with a seven-point plan. And they presented it to the
03:46Ukrainians and the Europeans over the course of the last couple of days. There was a meeting first in
03:55Paris. And then there was supposed to be a follow-up meeting in London. Again, Zelensky was kept well
04:04away from the meeting in London. We then got information about what this American plan was.
04:12And it turned out that it was, in all essence, the Kellogg plan. It didn't differ from the Kellogg
04:18plan. Now, 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. That would be the one that
04:31would lead to the deal, the famous deal, the agreement. Or it could be that because the Russians
04:38were saying, we've got to have something substantive to work on. We can't just talk about ceasefires,
04:43because ceasefires don't work, that the Americans dusted off the only plan that they have, which is
04:49the Kellogg plan. I mean, that is a possibility too. As I said, this is such a chaotic process that
04:54it's very difficult to know exactly what is happening here. Anyway, the point is, Zelensky then threw
05:01publicly the most extraordinary tantrum. He 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. He insisted that
05:17all territory must be returned to Ukraine. He said that the only thing he's prepared to talk about is
05:22an unconditional ceasefire, nothing else. That's the only mandate that his negotiators have. He insists
05:32that Ukraine must be allowed to enter NATO. He's taking all that stance.
05:37The Europeans, or at least the most powerful people in Europe, Ursula, Kaya Callas, obviously,
05:47Friedrich Merz, Macron, Starmer, they've all publicly sided with Zelensky. And right across the European media,
06:00you now have furious denunciations of Trump, of the United States, that this is appeasement,
06:06that this is surrender to the Russians, that the Kellogg plan is completely unacceptable,
06:11that we can't tolerate anything that rewards aggression, that there's never been any change
06:19in borders by force since the end of the Second World War. That is so completely untrue, by the way,
06:25in Europe, that again, one wonders where these people, what planet these people are on.
06:32But anyway, all of that happened. And that looked as if the negotiations on Wednesday,
06:39such as they are, if they are even negotiations, had finally collapsed. And then over the next couple
06:46of hours, even as Rubio and Wyckoff departed from the negotiations, we started to get messages from Trump,
07:00which suggested that he still thinks that some kind of an agreement can be reached.
07:04And the suggestion that this is a make or break moment, that wasn't quite true after all.
07:13And then he published this true social post, which was critical of Zelensky, but nowhere near as critical
07:21of Zelensky, as one might have expected. It doesn't address the fact that Zelensky has completely rejected,
07:31in all respects, the American plan, the Kellogg plan, the only plan the Americans have put forward.
07:39And we also had a further true social post from Trump, which criticizes a missile strike on Kiev that the
07:47Russians have conducted. Again, it's not clear why this particular missile strike is attracting so much
07:53attention, given that there had been dozens of missile strikes on Kiev over the course of the war,
07:59and there is no ceasefire. And 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, because the plan, the Kellogg plan, has been rejected
08:18already by the Ukrainians. So he's coming empty handed. But my best guess is that Trump is making
08:26one last attempt to try and get some movement. And he's sent Wyckoff to see whether Putin is going to
08:32make some concessions and try to get this whole process moving forward. Because that's the only
08:38conceivable reason why I can see Wyckoff going to Moscow at this time.
08:44This is not off topic, but I think it is connected. As 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.
09:00Yeah. And we don't have many details at the time of recording
09:05this video. But assuming that this has something to do with Ukraine, we've had these attacks on
09:15Russian military officials before in the past, and it was Ukraine. And a lot of reports claim that it was
09:26not only Ukraine, but it was specifically the military intel, Budanov's department that was
09:33orchestrating these things. Assuming 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,
09:52if there was one, which I think there probably was. I mean, you know, we rightly said, we haven't
09:57got all the details. We don't know yet. We just got the news. We just got the news.
10:00But I mean, it looks to me very, very likely that that was the purpose. Because this is where
10:07the whole thing now, the whole absurdity of this whole so-called negotiation is becoming
10:15transparently obvious. Because listening to Zelensky, when he spoke on Tuesday, following and tracking
10:25all of the things that he has said since then, he clearly doesn't want peace. He wants the war to
10:33continue. The 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. And it looks to me as if he and the people around him, presumably
10:48including Budanov, are going to do everything they possibly can over the next couple of days
10:54to sabotage any movement towards peace. So if they can assassinate a Russian general somewhere in Russia
11:01in order to derail the whole peace negotiation, they will do it. And of course, quite plausibly,
11:09it will derail the peace negotiations. Now, I was reading, just before we did this program,
11:16an absolutely excoriating statement made by the Russian foreign ministry spokesman yesterday,
11:24Zaharova. And it basically said this regime in Kyiv is not interested in peace. And it went through all
11:34the whole story, the Minsk agreements, the breaches of the recent ceasefires. It looked to me very much
11:41as if the Russians anyway were preparing to tell all this to Wyckoff when he arrives in Moscow. And of course,
11:51this attack will crystallize it. But whatever proposal is made to end the war, even one which objectively
12:06is as favorable to Ukraine as the Kellogg plan actually is, I mean, put aside all the hysteria,
12:16the anger, the accusations, the talk of surrender, the talk of appeasement, given the realities on the
12:23battlefield, given where we actually are in the war, given the stated Russian objectives. I mean,
12:30if the Kellogg plan is accepted at this point in time, it is a victory for Ukraine. I mean, it is,
12:36or at least it is the best possible deal imaginable that Ukraine could have.
12:42I mean, the Russians, as they made already very clear, have enormous issues with the Kellogg plan. I mean,
12:49they've all but rejected it. But, you know, even then, the Ukrainians apparently don't want it. And I think
12:59it was what David Sachs, who said, you know, a person who takes the stance that Zelensky does, even on a topic
13:07like Crimea, which shouldn't really be open for discussion, because nobody ever expects Crimea to
13:14be returned to Ukraine. It's inconceivable that will ever happen. If Zelensky is not prepared to make
13:21concessions, even on the issue of Crimea, that he's clearly not interested in peace at all. And even
13:27the president's son, the US president's son, Donald Trump Jr., is endorsing that view. So yes, I think
13:37quite plausibly, this assassination attempt is an attempt to wreck the negotiations. And presumably,
13:43it will wreck the negotiations. I don't understand why this process is being continued at all at the
13:52moment. I mean, it makes very little sense to me. Presumably, Trump is so invested on trying to get
13:59some kind of deal done, because he's boxed himself into the position where he can't move forward with
14:06the Russians on other matters, unless there is a deal on Ukraine, that, you know, he just is dragging
14:15this thing out, trying to get a deal done. Whatever deal is done, the Ukrainians are now certain to
14:22reject it. Yeah, everything is misleading and is misdirection, it seems, smoke and mirrors from all
14:32sides, to be quite honest. Well, absolutely. Bloomberg, they put out an article claiming that
14:38Trump is sending Whitcoff to Moscow in order to get Russia to accept Ukraine's right to military
14:46force. Nonsense. But there you have Bloomberg putting out nonsense type of articles. We had
14:50the Financial Times article, which was also nonsense about Putin accepting the, I forgot,
14:58what did he accept? The ceasefire, the freeze the conflict. Nonsense, right? Nonsense.
15:03Yeah, so you have the media misleading. Yes. Well, these are plants. These are clearly plants
15:10that somebody is making it to the media. People familiar with the matter, they say, right?
15:14People familiar with the matter, exactly. The point about the Bloomberg article about, you know,
15:20trying to get the Russians to agree to allow Ukraine to have military, you know, to build up their
15:27armed forces to whatever level that they wanted to. That would imply that the Russians have already
15:35rejected that. Well, we know they would do. And you said, Whitcoff, you would said Whitcoff to tell
15:40Putin this? Whitcoff is going to sit down with Putin and say, you're going to accept Ukraine having a
15:44military? Absolutely. Yes. The 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. As I said, there is massive
15:58misdirection going on. So it makes it very, very difficult to understand exactly what precisely is
16:08going on. Now, I'm going to make a guess. This is my best guess. I think that there is a deadline
16:16that Trump is working against probably at the end of this month, by the end of this month.
16:24The point is, and there's been comments about this now from people within the British military,
16:30that the weapons, the arms, the shells supplied to Ukraine by Biden in the autumn are now almost run
16:38out. And if the war continues beyond that, Trump has to make a decision. Does he just cut Ukraine off
16:48or does he exercise his drawdown authority, which he has not done up to this point,
16:56to supply more weapons to Ukraine, to keep the war going, maybe in the hope that there'll be more
17:02negotiations? Or perhaps eventually does he go to Congress and ask for further appropriation?
17:10He's got to make that decision. And 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,
17:26because beyond that, he's going to be facing decisions in the United States which are politically difficult.
17:34And I suspect that the Russians, up to a certain point, will try to help him. But I don't think
17:43they're going to make any fundamental concessions. And besides, why would they? Given that, as we've seen,
17:50Zelensky is going to reject any proposal, any conceivable proposal, other than outright victory,
18:00which the Russians are not going to concede. Yeah. But going back to the whole misdirection
18:06point, wouldn't you say that the whole Kribea thing is misdirection? Absolutely.
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 the Europeans. They're making it as if we reject the US's decision
18:32to recognize Kribea. That's what the Europeans are saying. We reject the US's decision. So that's
18:37bonkers. That's crazy. But that's the Europeans. Zelensky is saying, I can't accept the US's
18:45recognition. I reject the US's recognition of Kribea because it goes against the Ukraine
18:50constitution. What has Zelensky ever cared about the Ukraine constitution? And who is Zelensky
18:56to reject the US's recognition of Kribea? Well, what relevance does the Ukrainian
19:01constitution have to what the United States does? Exactly. I mean, the United States is not bound
19:07by the terms of Ukraine's constitution. Zelensky is the US's puppet and not the
19:11other way around. I mean, it's nonsense. And then the whole concession of Kribea
19:17makes zero sense because the Russians never asked for it. They never talked about it.
19:21They don't really care if the US recognizes Kribea or not. They couldn't give two flying Fs if
19:27the US recognizes Kribea. The same goes for sanctions relief. The Russians never asked for
19:33sanctions relief. We're coming up to one year, Alexander, one year from June 2024, when Putin
19:40clearly put out his terms. Clearly, he spelled all his terms out. No one talks about in the Trump
19:47administration. No one talks about in the collective West mainstream media. We talked about it all the
19:53freaking time, but no one else wants to talk about Putin's terms. They deliberately ignore his terms,
20:01deliberately. Yes. So my point is that this is all one big misdirection. Why is this all one big
20:08misdirection? I don't know. And I have to also say something else. Before you comment, Lavrov was on
20:13Face the Nation. Yes. Which is significant. Yes. Because it does show that the collective West
20:19mainstream media is now actually allowing Russian officials to give their side of the story, which
20:27is very, very significant. Yes. But Lavrov, he came out in support of Trump. He said that Trump is the
20:36only leader that has recognized the root causes. The only leader in the world, he said. Yes. That
20:41recognized the root causes. Anyway, your thoughts on all this? Because something is, there's a lot of
20:47smoke in mirrors of misdirection. Why, I think, is the million dollar question. Where is this heading
20:52to is the million dollar question. Well, who knows? Who knows? I mean, there is a frantic effort to try to
20:58prevent any kind of peace settlement and any kind of understanding being reached between the Americans
21:04and the Russians. And I think this is one obviously. But can I just say something? When you talk about
21:09Crimea, you're absolutely correct. First of all, it's important to stress this. Zelensky didn't just
21:15reject the point about Crimea that was in the Kellogg, in this proposal, this American proposal.
21:24He rejected the entire proposal. Why people are focusing on Crimea so much is really very strange
21:36because everything else was rejected as well. I mean, he was not prepared to accept any part of the
21:44proposal that was made. And in some ways, the most substantive and concerning point that Zelensky made
21:55was the one about Ukraine having the right to join NATO. Because the Americans are saying that's off the
22:02table. The Russians are saying that's absolutely unacceptable. Zelensky is insisting on it. And so,
22:10by the way, are the Europeans. So, I mean, that is much more important than the Crimean issue. And
22:19there's also a huge amount of lying about the Crimean issue. Absolutely. But the Russians haven't asked for
22:24the Americans to recognize Crimea as Russian. There's never been a Russian demand. The Financial Times,
22:33by the way, in an editorial today, admits that. It actually admits the point you've just made that,
22:40you know, this is a concession that's been made to the Russians that they never asked for. So,
22:45I mean, it's meaningless. There's also an extraordinary amount of rhetoric, especially in the British media,
22:56about how this would reward Russia for using military force to change borders. And that this
23:04has never happened before, since the end of the Second World War. Well, you live in Cyprus,
23:13which is part of Europe. You know that isn't true. We had a Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
23:22The Turkish army still occupies 40% of Cyprus. But that is an event that, of course, we can't talk
23:31about. Well, I have to correct you because the EU is going to approve the 18th sanctions package against
23:37Turkey, Alexander. That's right. That's right. Right? That's right. Well, not the 18th,
23:43because we're getting all the way back to 1974, the 118th. The 118th. Yeah, I mean, you know.
23:49Anyway, go on, go on. But I mean, you know, so, I mean, the lying, the misrepresentation,
23:55the deception is just off the scale. Now, I think, as I said, we only got fragmentary bits of this
24:03interview that Lavrov gave. What Lavrov basically said is we haven't got an agreement
24:09because the American, Trump, he was asked, Trump says there's a deal. Lavrov says there isn't a
24:14deal. There's still work to do. There's points to still agree. There's things that needs to be
24:20fine-tuned. But you're absolutely right. He supported Trump. He said Trump is the only leader
24:26up to now who has actually addressed the question of the root causes of the conflict. The Russians are
24:31saying this all the time, by the way, that this is one reason why they are happy to work with Trump,
24:37have a certain respect for Trump, because he's the only person who's looking at these substantive
24:43issues. It's absolutely true. But, 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,
25:07which he clearly is, and that is not going to change if the Europeans are supporting Zelensky.
25:15Even Boris Johnson, supposedly Donald Trump's friend, is now criticising Trump and supporting Zelensky.
25:23If the Europeans are going to support Zelensky, then Trump should realise that this is over,
25:33that he's not going to get peace in Ukraine. He's not going to even get any kind of agreement in
25:40Ukraine that that can last or that can work. And he should do that, which he says he wants to or
25:51intends to do, which is walk away. Maybe that's part of this entire process. You know, Trump is
26:00Trump is positioning the United States as the mediator, which everyone knows is not true. Everyone
26:05knows the US is a party to the conflict, including the New York Times, which outlined the entire
26:10thing in excruciating detail, how the US is at war with Russia. Okay, so everyone knows that's a fact,
26:17but you know, Trump, the marketing guy, the messaging guy, he has positioned the US, at least from a
26:24marketing messaging standpoint, as the mediator. If you haven't been following the conflict in Ukraine,
26:33as we have, as our viewers have, if you're just some person who, you know, watches the news every
26:38now and now and again, you would probably say, okay, the US is a mediator. You would believe it.
26:43Yes.
26:44So you, and that's a majority of the population, right? Not everyone in the world is hyper-focused
26:50on this conflict as we are and our reviewers are. So he's done that. He is saying that,
26:59that if he was president, this war would have never happened. He says that over and over again.
27:03Okay.
27:03Good. Correct. He's right about it.
27:05He's right about that, but he did send the javelins when he was president as well. So he did
27:09escalate.
27:09Yes.
27:10Okay. Rubio is now also saying that we didn't start this war. He said it the other day.
27:16Yeah.
27:16We didn't start this war. He said we had nothing to do with this war.
27:19Yes.
27:19Trump has also said that. He said this is Biden's war. He started saying that. Now Trump is also
27:24going further back in time and he's talking about Obama. Now that we're talking about Crimea,
27:29he'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. And then I'll
27:48end my point here with Lavrov during that Face the Nation interview. He also asked the reporter,
27:55when 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. How do you analyze all of this? Is the plan to walk away? Is the plan to
28:15not walk away?
28:17Is there perhaps a deal being worked out by the Russians and the Americans at the moment? Maybe
28:22that's why Witgov is in Moscow. But every other comment from every other Russian official,
28:29Zaharova, Peskov yesterday, Shoigu yesterday, argues otherwise. So, I mean, it's difficult to see. I mean,
28:39I think that one of the things that I would say about Lavrov's comment is that he was also asked
28:45whether it was really true that Witgov was on his way to Moscow. And he said, you know, your president
28:52is saying that you don't trust your president on this. True.
28:55Bear in mind that he also said- It was back to back questions.
28:57It was back to back. Exactly. And that excerpt looked to me as if it was heavily edited anyway. So
29:05we haven't been provided with a whole text of the interview and that might be important to get as
29:11well. But anyway, let's not waste too much time on this interview. I can't clearly see where this is
29:21going. But 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. He doesn't want peace in any form. He's no different from the rest of
29:44the Ukrainian leadership in this. There is no one else important in Ukraine who is likely to take over
29:52from him, who would take a different stance to the one that Zelensky himself is taking. The Europeans
29:59also are going to back Zelensky no matter what. And they're going to spread all sorts of false stories
30:07about, you know, Crimea, about negotiations with the Russians, about the Financial Times article
30:16about, you know, the freeze on the existing front lines, the Bloomberg article about getting the Russians
30:23to agree to allow Ukraine to build up its armed forces to whatever extent it wants. All of those sorts of things.
30:30So the Ukrainians are never going to change. The Ukrainians aren't 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
30:40reach that point. But he's also recently been out of his way to say again and again and again that he's
30:48not on anybody's side, that he is completely neutral. So I think he wants to walk away. But in a situation
30:56where he says that neither side wants peace, neither the Ukrainians nor the Russians. And I think this is
31:03really what this is now about so that he won't have to. He can walk away. He can then make his decision
31:11so that nobody's interested in peace. He doesn't clearly doesn't want to impose more sanctions on the
31:17Russians. Notice that all the talk about that has gone. All the talk about more sanctions against
31:24the Russians has also gone. So he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to continue involvement
31:32in the war. I think probably there is a lot of theater and choreography here. I don't really see much
31:41evidence of much in the way of a genuine negotiation taking place. I think that this is all about
31:47the United States doing an exit. Certainly, that is apparently what the British think.
31:56And I read comments today in the media, in the British media, that the Ukrainians think that also,
32:02and that the Ukrainians now believe that within a week's time, a further American aid to Ukraine
32:09will have ended. That's what Bill is saying too. And then we got the report about the US blocking
32:14the Taurus missiles as well. So that's indicative. And Trump was asked in the White House
32:22about what concessions is Russia making? And Trump said, Russia's going to stop taking over the country.
32:32He's going to stop taking over Ukraine. That's the concession. I mean, that was a pretty big
32:36statement from Trump. He didn't talk about Russia's giving this or that, and if they don't give this
32:41or that, we're going to place sanctions or anything like that. He just said it straight up. He just said,
32:45look, the concession is that Russia doesn't take over all of Ukraine. That's the concession.
32:50Yes. You know, that might even be true. I mean, it's quite plausible. It is true. But what I mean by
32:59that is that the Russians might actually, I mean, they could say to Trump, look, even if the negotiations
33:09break down, we are prepared to state publicly in some kind of document that you can use, if you want
33:16to use, that it is not our plan to take over the whole of Ukraine. I mean, that might be a
33:24something, a gesture that the Russians might make. Of course, it might be overtaken by events.
33:30If the war goes on, if Zelensky refuses, goes on refusing to negotiate, you know, things might play
33:37out differently. But the Russians could say, look, it's never was our intention to take over
33:44the whole of Ukraine. It isn't our intention. Now, we can give you this promise. You could take
33:50it away. You could show it to whomever you want. And you could say that that's the big concession that
33:55we have made, or at least big gesture that we have made. Awesome. Now, just to wrap up the video,
34:01your thoughts on NATO CEO, Brutte, in Washington, trying to convince Trump to not ditch Ukraine and the
34:10reports, or the reports from the Telegraph, which said that Stamer and Macron, they're pulling back
34:18from their whole peacekeeper, reassurance, whatever it was called, reassurance forces in Ukraine,
34:24whatever they're pulling back from that. What do you think all that stuff signals?
34:28Well, I mean, first of all, the last point signals the collapse of the coalition of the willing. In fact,
34:34they're going further because they're now, the British are now blaming the French. And again,
34:39this is probably you have to drill through the British media to see this. But the British are
34:44saying this whole crazy idea of deploying troops into Ukraine at all wasn't our idea. It wasn't the
34:51idea of our glorious leader, Keir Starmer. It was all Macron. Macron suggested it. We were for something
34:58much, much more modest. So clearly, what's happened is that without an American guarantee,
35:08none of the other NATO countries that have forced military forces were prepared to commit.
35:13The British and French were not prepared to go by themselves. That would have been a force of five,
35:19eight thousand men at most. It would have been incredibly vulnerable to Russian attack. The Russians
35:27have 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. So it looks like it's collapsed.
35:39But of course, we still have talk about sending trainers into Ukraine. No fly zones over Western
35:46Ukraine. That is still there. So, you know, that hasn't,
35:52that hasn't unfortunately gone away completely. What Rutter, Macron and Starmer are still trying to do
36:03is to get Donald Trump to agree to become Joe Biden. They want him, they, their optimal position
36:13is to try to get back to what Joe Biden was doing. Unlimited support for Ukraine, unlimited support for
36:23Ukraine's demands. People talk all the time about Russia's maximalist demands. They're not maximalist
36:31demands. If 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. Those are maximalist demands.
36:52But 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
37:08not going to get the Americans to do this. I mean, it is politically impossible, I would have thought,
37:15for Trump to go back to the policies of Joe Biden. But they want to be able to say when it's all over,
37:24and when Ukraine collapses, that it was the Americans who betrayed Ukraine. It was Donald Trump. He's the
37:30man who's entirely to blame for the whole thing, because he pulled the plug from under Zelensky, this
37:37heroic figure. And it was he who engaged in this Chamberlain-like appeasement of, you know, the
37:46dictator in the Kremlin. And we in Britain, we in France, we in Europe did all that we could. But it
37:57was the Americans. It was this cowardly man in the White House who's probably still got connections to
38:03Russia. But that was what he did. Because I can't seriously believe that at this stage in the game,
38:11they generally, honestly, truly believe that Trump is going to reverse course completely and start
38:17backing Zelensky to the hilt and Ukraine to the hilt and recommit to supporting Ukraine and impose
38:24more sanctions on Russia and do all of those things, which is so completely contrary to everything he's
38:31saying and appears to want to do. Yeah, right. But anything is possible.
38:35It's a roller coaster. Yeah. All right. We will end the video there. The Duran.locals.com.
38:41We are on Rumble Odyssey, Pitch You, Telegram, Rockfin, and X. Go to the Duran shop, pick up some
38:45merch. 15% off. Use the code SPRING15. Link is in the description box down below. Take care.