Ukraine Escalates Strikes After Trump-Zelensky UN Meeting

0:00Ben Meiselas:All hell continues to break loose in connection with Russia's war in Ukraine. It continues to escalate. And after yesterday's United Nations session and that bizarre meeting between Donald Trump and Zelensky, Zelensky also is delivering a message to Donald Trump, a rude awakening, if you will, which is the lives of our people in Ukraine are more important than the price of diesel. So stop whining about the price of diesel going up. Zelensky's like, the main reason the cost of diesel is going up is because the Strait of Hormuz. But even if it was also being caused by Russia's war in Ukraine, Zelensky's like, we're trying to protect the lives of our people here.

0:42Ben Meiselas:We are in a war. And he's also hinting at the fact that, Donald, you promised you would end this 24 hours after the election in 2024. And you failed to do that. You said you had the best words and you would convince everybody. And all you basically did was make deranged posts on social media. That's not how you actually do peace deals. What are you doing? And so I'll show you Zelensky's message in just a moment. But why? Well, Donald Trump was out there yesterday in New York saying, oh, I can tell, you know, Zelensky wants a peace deal. Putin wants a peace deal. It's both sides. Everything's both sides, both sides, both sides.

1:21Ben Meiselas:Russian missiles were raining down on Kyiv and Zephrushchev and all of these surrounding areas. One of the things we saw Russia specifically focused on with its drones and missile strikes yesterday was striking Ukrainian gas stations and other tankers, but focusing really on these gas stations and fuel storage tanks. and we're also seeing a lot of these Garen or Jaren 5 drones that move very very very fast these Russian Jaren 5 drones let me show you what's going on over here so take a look over these gas stations Ukrainian sources reporting that Russian forces have been targeting gas stations in the capital in Kiev since the early morning one after another these gas stations have been hit.

2:15Ben Meiselas:You can take a look over here at the aftermath of this morning's Russian Jaren 4, Jaren 5 jet drone strike on the gas stations in Kyiv right over here. You have two gas stations as well as the Darnitsia railway station warehouse facility and other transport infrastructure were hit by at least five of these Jaren 4 jet drones, multiple large fires breaking out. You see this in Kiev, a second UPG gas station on Kharkiv Highway was also hit. You had warehouses in Zeprecia hit. Let me just show you what these Garen 5 or 4 missiles are actually looking like over here. So this is Kiev, and you'll see that some of the anti-cruise missiles, it didn't work here.

3:05Ben Meiselas:Let me show you what happened as the air defense missile failed to intercept the Russian cruise missile. Here play this clip.

3:40Ben Meiselas:And more footage over here are photos of the Amster shopping mall in Zyprezya, which was hit. This is a big deal as well. So this morning in Yakutia, the Neurungrian power plant is 5 ,500 kilometers from Ukraine, deep in Russia. And Ukraine's been able to hit it with its long range drones. again this is 5 500 kilometers as a result of the fire the transformer substation generator technical equipment wall panels cable mezzanes on a total area of 90 square meters were damaged by the fire i'll show you what that looked like i'm going to show you what zelinski said in a moment. But let me show you this other fire in the industrial zone of the Kubishev oil refinery in Samara in Russia.

4:40Ben Meiselas:I'm not sure if this was a new strike or from the strikes the night before, but you'll see that burning. Let's play it.

4:53Yeah.

4:53Ben Meiselas:So, I mean, you have Ukraine continuing to to strike the refineries, the petrochemical facilities, other infrastructure, Russia striking as well. Here's what Zelensky said. When Zelensky was asked, he did this interview for Wall Street Journal recently, yesterday. And he said, look, our lives are more important than energy prices. So stop talking about the price of diesel, this and that. We're trying to save lives here. And then he also says, look, it's the main cause for all of this is actually the catastrophic war in Iran. But here's what he has to say here, play this clip. And talk about it.

5:32But by phone, yes, really, we were at this topic about the diesel, especially about diesel. I said, look, for maybe for somebody, it's important for our lives are more important than the price of an energy and between us. I mean, this doesn't depend on us. I will be honest, everybody understands really, everybody understand the volume of our moves has influence. It's not the volume from Russia. But in any way, even if this has influence, if everybody wants to help just people with diesel or with prices on diesel, okay, help us to stop Putin with blackouts on territory of Ukraine to attack our civil infrastructure.

6:15Water supplies.

6:17Ben Meiselas:More from Zelensky over here, talking about responding by destroying the Russian refineries. Listen to what he says. Let's play it. Huge amount. How they can get this money if we respond after their tax on energy, if we respond on refineries so they don't have enough diesel? We destroyed 45 % of their facilities, 45%. So, and the second part. More from Zelensky here about having to be strong and show Putin that he's not alone on this planet, even if it's his dream. And that's why he has to respect people. And again, he's showing that Ukraine is going to show strength. Here, play this clip. We respond.

6:58We have to be strong and we have to show Putin that he's not alone on this planet, even if it's his dream. And that's why he has to respect people. People, how Russians can respect people. Only, it's a pity, but it's only when you show that you are strong. They don't respect weakness. Even sometimes when people want to be weak, it's normal for people to be weak, to live, to spend time, to love children. Yes, but now you have to demonstrate with Russians, you have to demonstrate. That's why you...

7:32Ben Meiselas:And meanwhile, on Russia's Sputnik accounts, They're showing what Donald Trump was saying yesterday during his meetings on the sideline of the United Nations after that deranged speech he gave at the General Assembly, where Donald Trump talks about how he's examining, doing diesel export bans as a result of the surging price of diesel. and i'll show you russia clipped this russia sputnik channel clipped this let me show you what we all heard what trump said but it's interesting to see russia sputnik um clipping this let's play it president senator solomon today has called for a ban on diesel exports a temporary ban for what a ban on diesel exports chuck grassley called for the same thing mike rogers called for the same thing is that something you're considering is so well i've gone for that too i've said let's not send out the diesel we make a lot of diesel that could have a little bit of an effect on regular automobile gasoline because when you do that you know it's a sort of a flow it's a balance but no i've called for it i've called for it within my people i've been talking about it scott you want to talk about that for a second yeah we're examining that whether they whether it's feasible in terms of the overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial band would work is there is a timeline for a decision on that basis one way or the other Mr.

8:55President.

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10:08Ben Meiselas:That's wildalaskan.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S, for$35 off your first order. Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode. and one of the things that i've been saying is i understand look we need to bring the diesel price under control the best way to do that is stop this catastrophic war in iran that's that's one of the main things and donald trump promised peace in ukraine in 24 hours well he's a liar but you know the the thing we need to be very thoughtful about when we talk about diesel export diesel bans is it could backfire because there's an international diesel market and because US is one of the biggest, if not the biggest exporter of diesel.

10:55Ben Meiselas:If you ban the export of diesel, what could possibly happen is other states in the United States import diesel internationally from other countries. And so what'll happen if you should basic supply and demand? And if the U.S. shuts off the supply of its diesel to the international markets, it could backfire potentially, right? And the overall price of diesel could rise. And lots of states that are dependent on importing diesel from other countries, they're going to have to pay massive amounts. And then that could end up also increasing the price of diesel here at home in the areas that are more close to the refineries where the diesel is being refined in the first place.

11:41Ben Meiselas:So we have to be thoughtful and it can't just be, you know, oh, the ranting and ravings of a lunatic. That is, that's Donald Trump. And you all remember Donald Trump yesterday was like, both Putin and Zelensky want to see the war end. They both want to see it equally. Here, play this clip. He's willing to meet, he'd like to see the war end. With both you and President Trump? I think they both want to see the war end, to be honest with you. It's time. A lot of people being killed and they don't want that. But I think they both want to see the war end. And this was the moment that Zelensky was talking about where Donald Trump was like, you know, the main thing I'm concerned about right now was that Zelensky strikes in Russia, they're causing the price of diesel to go up.

12:23Ben Meiselas:That's what I'm worried about playing this clip. Strikes inside Russia on the refined capacity and the diesel, it seems like that's been a serious hit on the Russians. Well, it is a serious hit on the Russians. It's also a serious hit on the price of diesel. The diesel oil, diesel fuel has gone up quite a bit, but we'll be talking about that. But, you know, it's a very serious hit, certainly on Russia. So a lot of people in the UK are very worried about them. And this was a particularly, I think, sickening moment over here. And given all of Donald Trump's deranged moments at the United Nations, I think this one doesn't get talked about enough.

13:06Ben Meiselas:But when he says Melania has been responsible for all of these reunifications of children that I guess Trump says that Ukraine has been kidnapping Russian children. And then Russia has been kidnapping Ukrainian children. So Trump makes it a both sides issue and says that Melania has been brokering these reunifications. And look, I've been giving you my opinion as protected by the First Amendment, so feel free to disagree with my opinion. But I believe what Melania is doing is giving cover to the catastrophic war by claiming all the children, reunifications. We never actually get to see who these children are.

13:47Ben Meiselas:They never really articulate which Ukrainians are stealing the Russian children, right? I mean, who are these children that you're talking about? and with the fifth reunification, the sixth reunification. And then it just seems to be used as a way to dilute the catastrophic impact of this war where you have a lot of children dying and a lot of children getting killed. Here's what Trump said so you can hear for yourself. Let's play it. I also want to recognize the extraordinary work of our great First Lady who has secured the safe return of many displaced Ukrainian and Russian children back home to their families.

14:31So many. Thank you very much, First Lady. Thank you very much. Where is our First Lady? Where is she? She's around here someplace. Can you imagine? I can't see the First Lady. Thank you very much, First Lady. Great job. She worked so hard.

14:50Ben Meiselas:And then also, just to give you some updates, It's Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, landed in New York. He'll be speaking to Marco Rubio this morning. So that's one of the first meetings that will be taking place. Also on Sputnik, they say how Russian forces, this is coming from Russia, Russian forces rain barrage of strikes on Ukrainian defense and energy facilities. In Kiev and the other nearby regions, warehouses storing materials for unmanned aerial vehicles. um in odessa has been hit hard russian artillery hammers ukrainian infantry near orkhov and so the short of it is is that there's nowhere near a resolution of this catastrophic war anytime soon it's escalating and then we see all of the european countries on red alert and i've been talking to you about what we've been seeing right you have poland and lithuania and estonia and I mean, we have Germany, UK.

15:53Ben Meiselas:I mean, all these countries are saying they're on a war footing at this point. And they're preparing like the war book from World War II and preparing for potential complete war on the continent. And one of the things that I've been saying to pay attention to of where we could see a big issue, as I said, look at Eastern Estonia look over there is that going to be an area where potentially Russia will say hey this is an area that's culturally Russian so as a result we think that you know we're going to annex it or we're going to take these cultural areas and try to test whether article 4 or article 5 would be invoked and is that the intelligence that's what I think is happening I'm just giving you my opinion I think this is the intelligence that is being gathered on these European countries.

16:52Ben Meiselas:And that if they then invoked Article 4 and 5 as a result of this encroachment in Estonia, would that lead to this escalation type, this escalation trap, if you will? So that's what we're focusing on. We'll pay attention to it, of course. Keep you posted every step of the way. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Thank you.

17:16Ben Meiselas:Pre-order our new book WTF America today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.