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Out of Money, Out of Missiles: Trump's Bill, Europe's Empty Purse and Zelensky's Last Train

Long Read·7 min read·9 sections
Out of Money, Out of Missiles: Zelensky Exit Plan as Trump Faces Ukraine Defeat
The DuranOut of Money, Out of Missiles: Zelensky Exit Plan as Trump Faces Ukraine Defeat
41:01 · 2026-09-05Listen
Contents 9 sections
  1. Introduction
  2. The Lost-War Arithmetic
  3. Thirty-Six Billion for the Administration
  4. The Loan That Never Existed
  5. Step by Step Toward the Railway Station
  6. Five Hundred Drones and a Failed Bid for Moscow's Skies
  7. The CIA Fact That Came From Telegram
  8. Who Removes Zelensky — and How He Leaves
  9. After the Fall: No Insurgency, a Dirty War

Introduction

Recorded three days after Ukraine's , this Duran episode is a war-economy broadcast built on one reading: the money and the missiles are running out at the same moment the war is understood to be lost. Alexander Mercouris's framing line: — on the front lines, in the war in the sky, in the economy — with the realization spreading through Kiev, Western capitals and Washington From there the hosts run the arithmetic the press avoids: a 36-billion ask that lands in a corruption sink, a 90-billion-euro loan that was never actually raised, a Trump demand for roughly 300 billion — and, at the end of the line, Zelensky's exit plan.

The Lost-War Arithmetic

Alex Christoforou's opening list sets the scene: Europeans pushing for more extreme measures against Russia, Zelensky lobbying the UN to close Russian airspace, Russian forces advancing along the entire front — Kharkov, Orekhov, Dobropillya, "problems everywhere." Mercouris organizes the episode around the collapse reading: every hoped-for miracle — scaring or bribing the Russians, a new weapon, the drone offensive, sanctions, a crisis in Russia, Putin falling — has failed to arrive, and the panic in the collective West is what that realization looks like.

The emblem of the panic is the : a drone found beside a parked An-124, later declared probably connected to Russia — and on that basis , with talk of a desperate Kremlin about to attack the continent. Except, Mercouris notes, the story that "makes no sense at a logical level or any other level, and besides it isn't true" — German government attribution of the drone to Russia is what the narrative was built on . The escalation mood is real all the same: harassment of Russian ships, , demands from Washington that the Europeans buy more American weapons for cash.

Thirty-Six Billion for the Administration

The money chapter opens with Zelensky's ask: , plus another 27 billion for the military. Christoforou's reading of European incentives: the 27 billion would be welcome — it comes back to European industry — but the administration money

The European cupboard, in the hosts' telling, is bare either way. Reports that , telling the army to cut non-essential training. Germany crumbling, — and for what Mercouris pins on Merz and Germany's globalist elite: cutting off all Russian trade and cheap energy.

And even funded, there is nothing to buy: — the US has nothing to sell. Into this steps Trump with a reverse bill: Christoforou's observation cuts against the received view that Trump inflates the figures: the numbers roughly match what Biden actually gave — "lowballing it, not increasing it," in Mercouris's words.

The Loan That Never Existed

The longest passage is the post-mortem of the 90-billion-euro loan package — the one Zelensky is still drawing on paper, asking Mercouris reconstructs the anatomy: the bonds were to be guaranteed by the European Commission and governments, but — because Repayment was due when Russia was defeated and paid Ukraine reparations — No investor would buy on that basis, so the bonds were never placed:

What has actually moved: some European governments — — advancing money and setting it off against the loan. And even the full 90 billion let alone the promised two, once the drone wars, the Black Sea blockade and economic collapse destroyed domestic funding. Every new tranche is — the drain, Mercouris adds, with the golden toilets at its start.

Step by Step Toward the Railway Station

The under-covered story of the week, in Mercouris's view, is geographic: the Russians , and launched what looked like a not far from the central railway station — Add the reported loss of — Russian figures, "but I suspect they are probably true" — and the trajectory is clear:

Would the Russians actually strike it? If evacuation comes, Mercouris expects the Russians to open road corridors for Europeans, Americans and diplomats — but Christoforou sharpens it into the episode's title move: — and exactly what follows if the airspace-closure campaign continues. His verdict on that campaign: Mercouris's mechanism: every escalation plan was premised on to bring Putin down — and each has instead accelerated Ukraine's crisis.

Five Hundred Drones and a Failed Bid for Moscow's Skies

The strike that frames the broadcast: launched straight after Zelensky's airspace warning — — hoping to since even an hour's closure would lend weight to the unsafe-airspace story. Moscow's air defenses are now organized well enough that — hundreds shot down .

The arithmetic of failure: the drones — massively overpriced, and, with Starlink terminals and rare-earth components, draining the West's limited rare-earth stockpiles too.

The CIA Fact That Came From Telegram

Christoforou's exhibit for the state of Washington's information flow is CIA Director John Ratcliffe — When Ratcliffe said Russian soldiers or so to live at the front line, — a small one, The channel even claimed an article as its source, — the world's most powerful intelligence agency repeating it regardless .

Who can tell Trump? The rational camp is shrinking — is gone; Bessent, no friend of Kiev's, was described at Chattanooga by a witness to — but such voices haven't broken through. The dominant figures remain plus congressional hardliners — and they have won the internal battles, which is why Trump now owns the war.

Who Removes Zelensky — and How He Leaves

Prompted by a Foreign Policy piece hinting at Zelensky's disintegration, Mercouris works the endgame. Nothing removes Zelensky but force: The Europeans keep him propped up — , they were horrified, and The security underpinning: , and protecting him.

The real threat is internal and from the right: if the Azov brigades holding Donbass are trapped, enough ruthless people remain outside — starting with , whom Mercouris does not expect to let himself be encircled. But the hosts' central guess is quieter: Zelensky's plan is to hold on, keep money flowing, pay off enough people, then and escape west — French bodyguards reportedly already in place — toward , probably in France.

After the Fall: No Insurgency, a Dirty War

The exile government would not lack sponsors: the Europeans will back it as . And the conflict does not end at the front line's collapse — not even if the Russians take Kiev and

But Mercouris expects no insurgency: a is the wrong demographic for it. What continues is the dirty war — assassinations inside Russia, another officer killed in Saratov beside — with every attack eventually Russian one. "It is going to be very ugly... I'm afraid it's coming."

Interview Highlights

5 exchanges
  • Q

    Why is panic gripping Kiev and the collective West as Ukraine crumbles?

    Alex Christoforou asked00:00
    A
    Alexander Mercouris answered

    The madness is a product of the gathering slow-motion collapse — on the front lines, in the war in the sky, in the economy. It is gradually being understood in Kiev, Western capitals and the United States that this war is being lost. They kept telling themselves the Russians could be scared or bribed, that some new miracle weapon, the drone offensive or new sanctions would turn everything, that Putin would fall — now they sense the miracle is not coming. The Leipzig drone incident — an An-124 parked on a runway, a drone 'found' beside it — feeds the narrative of Russian hybrid war and escalation talk: the Russian House in Berlin closed, talk of suppressing internal EU dissent, US demands that Europeans pay cash for American weapons, while Zelensky pushes the UN to close Russian airspace and complains about the Russian satellite system. On the ground: a Ukrainian force trapped in Kharkov region, resistance in Orekhov near collapse, Dobropillya lost, the complicated battle north of Slavyansk ending in a conclusive Russian victory; Kiev attacked day and night, air-defense missiles exhausted, the economy in deep crisis — and a two-day public gunfight between the intelligence and security agencies, partly over closing money flows. The wheels are coming off.

  • Q

    Where would the 36 billion for Zelensky's administration actually come from?

    Alex Christoforou asked10:29
    A
    Alexander Mercouris answered

    Zelensky is asking for 36 billion just for his administration and another 27 billion for the military. The Europeans would have no problem with the military money — they see it eventually coming back to them — but the 36 billion for the administration is money just gone, lost to corruption. There was never any clear understanding of where Europe would even get the 90 billion: they were going to raise loans and bonds and the like. The UK defense ministry is absolutely broke — telling the army to cut back on non-essential training because there is no money. Germany is crumbling: Volkswagen in big trouble, Merz making excuses about China's fault and Trump's fault, when it is Merz's fault and the globalist German elite's fault, because they cut all trade and all cheap energy from Russia.

  • Q

    Even if Europe found the money — what could Zelensky buy, and what does Trump want paid back?

    Alex Christoforou asked12:09
    A
    Alexander Mercouris answered

    Even with money there is nothing to buy: no interceptors, no Patriot missiles — the US doesn't have anything to sell them. And now Trump says he wants money from the Europeans for all the weapons Biden gave them free; Mercouris expects the eventual figure to be around 300 billion, and if anything that is lowballing the Biden-period total. As for the 90-billion-euro loan: the bonds had no repayment date — they were supposed to be repaid when Russia was defeated and paid Ukraine reparations, which is to say never — so no investor would ever buy them. The bonds were never placed, the money was never raised, and the loan properly speaking does not exist; some governments, meaning Germany, have advanced money and set it against the package. Even fully paid, it would not have covered one year of Ukraine's costs, let alone the promised two — the drone wars, the Black Sea blockade and the collapsing economy have killed domestic funding. It is more money thrown down the drain — the drain which has the golden toilets at its start.

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