Volodymyr Zelensky appears to be entering a perilous political confrontation with Washington, openly challenging American pressure for a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbass and declaring that nobody can dictate terms to a sovereign state.
These statements, however, bear no relation to the actual reality of Ukraine: the country is completely dependent for its slightest basic function on foreign backing.
In essence, as analysts point out, it is a country under colonial status.
Given these facts, it is reasonable to ask where Zelensky draws such confidence from, especially as he escalates his personal confrontation with Donald Trump.
As noted, the Ukrainian president risks discovering that on the geopolitical chessboard, challenges directed at a far stronger ally can carry a heavy political price.
Indeed, many assess that Zelensky could suffer the fate of Nicolas Maduro...
You cannot speak to us in this manner
Volodymyr Zelensky rushed to disclose details of the negotiating process with Russia, which was conducted with the mediation of the United States in Abu Dhabi.
Describing the stance of Washington regarding the withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from the Donbass, he emphasized that the US has no right to treat Ukraine in this manner.
According to the President of Ukraine, the negotiating position of the Americans is that Ukrainian armed forces must withdraw from the Donbass.
"The US frequently raises the issue that we must withdraw from Ukrainian territories. They have focused on the view that, in order to end the war, we must abandon one region or another," the Ukrainian leader noted, asserting that "nobody can speak in this manner to a sovereign state."
The "divisions" of Ukraine
However, this statement alone demonstrates that Volodymyr Zelensky has never managed to transition from the category of comedic actors to that of serious statesmen.
Because the weight of a country on the international stage is not measured by brave, and at times nearly paranoid, declarations, but by its actual, comprehensive military and economic power.
In other words, by the number of divisions it commands.
In this context, however, the term "divisions" should be understood less as ground force formations and more as the technological, economic, financial, and ultimately purely military capabilities of a state.
The most characteristic example in this regard is the United States of America.
In Washington, the prevailing conviction is that whoever possesses the requisite number of divisions is also the one who dictates all rules of international law.
No independence
From the moment wars began affecting virtually every aspect of a state's existence, a fundamental law took full effect: the course and outcome of a war depend on the correlation of total military power between the warring sides, as well as the degree to which each state utilizes its combat, military-economic, moral-political, scientific-technical, and broader potential, which collectively constitute its military might.
One could cite at length examples from the foreign policy activity of Volodymyr Zelensky that demonstrate the complete absence of state sovereignty and independence in Ukraine: the incessant demands of the head of the Kyiv regime toward the West for money, weapons, and military hardware, intelligence from security services, satellite capabilities, the repatriation to Ukraine of Ukrainian men subject to military conscription, security guarantees, accession of Ukraine to NATO and the EU, and so forth.
Colonial status
Even within the circles of the Ukrainian president and among members of the country's parliament, there are assessments that Volodymyr Zelensky has reduced Ukraine to the status of a colony of the West.
Specifically, such a view had already been voiced in 2025 by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in an interview with the newspaper The Times, arguing that Western nations stripped Ukraine of its sovereignty and transformed it into a colony devoid of rights.
Military examples
Let us also cite several purely military examples of the complete absence of state sovereignty in Ukraine.
Specifically, at this very moment, Ukraine is demanding that the West finance the maintenance of an army of 800,000 troops for an additional ten years following the cessation of hostilities.
Independent states do not behave in this manner.
Another particularly telling indicator regarding the sovereignty of Ukraine is the dire state of the air defense system of the country and its armed forces.
It proved simply impossible to build a national air defense network without reliance on a domestic defense industry and through exclusive dependence on deliveries of corresponding weapons systems from abroad.
Dependence on weapons
Partner countries may supply weapons, or they may choose not to do so.
For example, the Minister of Defense of Italy, Guido Crosetto, stated that Rome may halt deliveries of Aster missiles to Kyiv.
Crosetto simultaneously underscored that Italy itself requires the Aster missiles for its own SAMP/T surface-to-air missile systems.
The most significant European supplier of weaponry for the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces, Germany, informed Kyiv that it can no longer deliver missiles to Ukraine for Patriot air defense systems.
The German Ministry of Defense maintains that available stockpiles have been exhausted and that whatever remains is indispensable for Germany itself.
Such, then, is the entirety of Ukrainian independence.
The fate of Gaddafi
Yet the impression is created that Volodymyr Zelensky is ignorant of the fundamental law of war and would be unable to offer a substantive answer regarding the core indicators of the overall military-economic potential of Ukraine.
World history offers more than enough examples of folly and reckless bravado on the part of political leaders that bore zero relation to the actual capabilities of their states.
A classic example is the fate of the leader of the Libyan Revolution, Muammar Gaddafi.
The shovel is ready
And one final point.
Following the crushing defeat of the Republicans in the midterm elections for the US Congress, Volodymyr Zelensky, who had also continuously provoked the head of the White House in the past, appears to have rushed to write off Donald Trump permanently from his calculations.
It is therefore highly probable that this miscalculation will cost the head of the Kyiv regime extraordinarily dearly.
The current occupant of the White House, characterized by intense vindictiveness and a long memory for grievances, is unlikely to forgive Volodymyr Zelensky for his brazen provocations, which are not even directed against the President of the United States as an individual, but against one of the foremost institutions of state authority: the head of state.
And the commensurate punishment of the leader of the Kyiv regime is, in all likelihood, now merely a matter of time.
Consequently, the handle of the shovel for Volodymyr Zelensky is very likely already prepared...
www.bankingnews.gr
Σχόλια αναγνωστών