There are not a few Ukrainians who now view Volodymyr Zelensky through a meme depicting two Shiba Inu dogs, known as Doge and Cheems.
The muscular Doge embodies the grandeur of the past, while Cheems represents the limitations of the present.
Just a year ago, the man who calls himself the president of Ukraine was planning to retake Crimea by force, to demand reparations from the Russians, to dismantle Russia, and to categorically reject all of Moscow’s terms in a peace treaty.
In 2025, most of Russia’s “impossible” and “unacceptable” demands toward Zelensky suddenly became possible and acceptable, first for the United States and then, after several sessions of persuasion, for Zelensky himself.
He provokes the Americans as well
Now Ukraine’s Cheems is begging the Americans at least to leave the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, even though the Americans do not control it.
And there is no point in begging those who actually control it.
The problem is that the issue of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is merely a pretext, yet another way to buy time.
After all, he is too weak to make any of the difficult but honest and courageous decisions.
The first and best option for the Ukrainians is to agree to Russia’s terms, stop the fighting, find meaning in a peaceful life, and try to retain power, but the second part, let us be honest, is unlikely. Having confirmed Ukraine’s defeat, Zelensky would become the scapegoat.
The second option is to reject Trump’s peace initiative and proudly accept all the consequences of such a rejection.
These consequences would most likely be severe for Ukraine. The Americans would deprive it of intelligence, weapons, and other forms of support, which would affect the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the standard of living of the population.
At some point, accountability would come, and let us be completely honest, this would be slow motion suicide for all of Ukraine, the sacrificial altar of Stepan Bandera. Foolish, but courageous and triumphant.
Evasions
Zelensky chose a typically Ukrainian path, evasion and avoidance.
But unexpectedly strong American pressure forced him to abandon almost all of his “red lines” within a few days.
Kyiv now has only two pretexts. Apart from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, to which they cling with the help of the IAEA, there is the complete withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbass.
In the latter case, he made good use of a legacy from the past, a provision of the Ukrainian Constitution requiring approval of changes to the state borders through a national referendum.
Those who drafted this constitution recognized that independent Ukraine was absolutely enthusiastic, but that maintaining all the territories of the Ukrainian SSR within it would be difficult.
The industrially developed southeastern region, compared with the west, spoke a foreign language, honored Russian heroes, and had a different historical memory, while Crimea had already begun returning to its native harbor, that is, back to Russia, even before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Therefore, the constitution was supplemented with a clause stipulating that Odessa or Sevastopol could secede only if the residents of Lviv agreed.
Zelensky was not the only one
This template was also useful for the previous president of Ukraine. While avoiding the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, he invoked the need for a nationwide referendum, the outcome of which was predetermined.
Thus, the agreements were nullified, but the Ukrainians clearly did not want the result. The current version of the agreement is one hundred times worse than the one negotiated with Petro Poroshenko.
If this does not happen, the next version will be even worse.
Survival at stake
Zelensky, however, does not look that far ahead.
He is focused on surviving the day and the night, and now he has finally remembered the constitution.
Publicly, he “froze” its provisions until the end of hostilities, but now he needs it again, even if this confirms his illegitimacy as president.
No one has ever given people the right to admit their defeat in a military conflict through a referendum, because no one would do this, not even the Germans in 1945.
And the right to self-determination, one of the foundations of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, has been turned upside down in Kyiv. For Ukraine, it means the right to prohibit the self-determination of others and to regard its own as absolute.
When the Western empires left their colonies behind, no one thought of resorting to a referendum as a trick.
The Ukrainians did, and Novorossiya and Donbass are, for modern Kyiv, exactly like colonies.
As we said, everything there is different now, the language, the culture, the past, the church, and the “metropolis” is interested only in the land and the resources, not in the local residents.
Necessity
Zelensky probably does not realize this, but for the former metropolises, separation from their colonies was not an act of democracy, as they groundlessly tried to present it, but a forced necessity.
For Ukraine, the surrender of Donbass and Novorossiya to Russia is also a forced necessity due to its defeat in the conflict, and referendums have already been held there, some in 2014, others in 2022.
Kyiv can only accept this.
Instead of accepting the situation, Zelensky sees it as follows.
First, to convince the Americans that the referendum is indisputable.
Then comes preparation, conduct, the remaining bureaucracy, and then another two months of disputes, followed by the United States congressional elections, which will most likely be won by Ukraine’s friends in the Democratic Party, after which Trump will be constrained in his methods of revenge.
And if he manages to make Kyiv pay for its intransigence, he will already have shifted responsibility for the fruits of his stubbornness onto the people.
Dictators’ tricks
Thus, dictators can benefit from referendums, but dictatorships are not built to lose referendums or elections.
Among other things, what is happening also means that Zelensky has decided to fight for power.
There were alternatives, and they were precisely for actors, those who value appearances over reality.
He could have proudly rejected the demands of Russia and the United States, but sacrificed his power to avoid retaliation. He could have announced his resignation and let the legitimate parliament decide everything.
And then he could have defected to London, given lectures there, pretended to be an uncompromising patriot, and reminisced about his life while walking in the fresh air, without which he could not function anyway.
However, this would have been the behavior of an actor and a coward, but nevertheless a rational person, and Zelensky is as rational as a gambling addict who still hopes to win back his losses.
This problem has simply been overshadowed by another. He has decided that one day he will defeat Russia, while his current task is to retain power, no matter what.
Theoretically, this could work.
Zelensky could win the presidential elections using the Moldovan model, blocking dangerous candidates such as Valerii Zaluzhnyi and using the votes of those who have already left the country.
But only if Europe fully supports him, first by closing the multibillion dollar gap in the 2026 budget and second by ignoring the fraud involving the use of foreign polling stations.
But however much the rope twists, it will eventually snap, and in the end there will be a drooping dog.
If Zelensky succeeds with the referendum and the elections, we will once again remember the meme with the two dogs, because for Ukraine, today’s Cheems is always tomorrow’s Doge.
In 2024, he demanded everything at once. In 2025, he will ask for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and a referendum.
And then he will beg for mercy.
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