Things are not always as they seem, and I am convinced that the drama that we witnessed at the White House on Friday is a perfect example. Right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is being endlessly ridiculed by the conservative media in the United States. One of the words that is being used to describe Zelenskyy is “stupid”, but the truth is that Zelenskyy is not stupid at all. I strongly disagree with Zelenskyy on a lot of things, but I also recognize that he is an incredibly cunning individual. He has used the war with Russia to become one of the most famous celebrities on the entire planet. Much of the global population is absolutely in love with him, and no matter what Zelenskyy does they just keep showering him and his nation with more cash.
But Donald Trump recognizes exactly what Zelenskyy is, and that presents a huge problem for Zelenskyy.
The U.S. has given more cash and military equipment to Ukraine than anyone else by a wide margin.
In fact, the U.S. was feverishly arming Ukraine even before the war began.
A lot of people do not realize this.
In the early days of the Biden administration, Zelenskyy’s goal was to take the DPR and the LPR. That is why there were 70,000 Ukrainian troops massed along the borders of the DPR and the LPR in February 2022. Apparently Biden had given Zelenskyy a green light to go in.
But now we are in 2025, and there is an administration in the White House that wants to bring peace to the region.
Sadly, Zelenskyy does not want peace.
I will explain why below.
Zelenskyy is completely and utterly opposed to a peace agreement negotiated by Trump, and the argument that we witnessed in the Oval Office on Friday ensured that there will not be one any time soon.
Following that argument, several prominent Republican lawmakers suggested that it might be time for Zelenskyy to resign…
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., suggested Sunday that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may need to resign to salvage the nascent Ukraine-Russia peace process, adding his voice to a growing debate sparked by the contentious Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy with President Donald Trump last week.
“Something has to change,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that.”
Johnson’s comments align with those of other officials like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who suggested that Zelenskyy step aside in remarks to reporters after the Friday meeting.
This just shows that they don’t understand Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy does not intend to do what is right for Ukraine.
If he intended to do what is right for Ukraine, he would have signed the agreement that had been negotiated with the Russians shortly after the war began in 2022.
Now more than a million Ukrainians are dead, and more are being slaughtered every day.
But for Zelenskyy, this war has been the best thing that has ever happened.
It has made him unbelievably famous, and he is showered with love and praise virtually wherever he travels all over the world.
As long as the war continues, he gets to continue to enjoy the ride.
Unfortunately for Zelenskyy, Ukraine is running low on manpower and is steadily losing ground to the Russians.
So at this point Zelenskyy basically has three options.
#1 He can agree to a ceasefire which would mean giving the Russians essentially everything that they want. If he did that, he would be seen as a loser that lost the war to the Russians, and history would not treat him kindly. And as I noted above, it would bring an end to all the fame and glory that he has been enjoying.
#2 He can keep the status quo going. Of course if he does this, Ukraine will definitely lose the war. The Ukrainian front lines are on the verge of collapse, and the Russians are slowly but surely moving forward.
#3 He can shake things up and try to do something to alter the outcome of the war. More money from western nations will not be enough. What Zelenskyy really needs is lots of western troops.
I believe that Zelenskyy has chosen option number three.
But once Donald Trump won the election, getting U.S. troops to Ukraine was out of the question.
So he pivoted and started focusing on European troops as his target.
At a conference in Munich last month, Zelenskyy boldly declared that it was time to create an “armed forces of Europe”…
“I really believe that the time has come that the armed forces of Europe must be created,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.
“Let’s be honest, now we can’t rule out that America might say ‘no’ to Europe on issues that might threaten it.”
Unfortunately for Zelenskyy, getting European nations to introduce ground troops into the conflict was not going to be easy.
So he was going to have to pull off some sort of a really big stunt.
That is where Trump comes in.
Zelenskyy understands that European leaders hate Trump with a passion.
Could it be possible that Zelenskyy was hoping to use their “Trump derangement syndrome” for his purposes?
In a choice between Zelenskyy and Trump, European leaders are always going to choose to side with Zelenskyy.
If a big enough spectacle could be created, it would have the potential to push European leaders over the edge emotionally.
And I think that may have been what Zelenskyy was trying to do.
The Ukrainians insisted that Zelenskyy must be allowed to come to the White House to sign a “minerals deal” with Trump.
But of course it now appears that Zelenskyy never had any intention of actually signing the deal.
Once he arrived at the White House, Zelenskyy started making all sorts of ridiculous demands…
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is now revealing what he calls “riduclous” requests by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky before the fiery exchange Friday with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Appearing on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, Lutnick said: “Forty-five minutes before the meltdown, the fact was Zelensky never stopped asking for, you know, ‘I will give no concessions, they’ve got to leave my land, I want reparations of $300 billion, and I want the United States to give me security guarantees,’ while they’re at war with Russia.
“And that’s why the president called it World War III. You’re gambling with World War III.
Zelenskyy knew that the Trump administration was not going to agree to such absurd requests.
And then once Zelenskyy and Trump sat down together, there was one provocation after another. The following was posted on Twitter by Philip Melanchthon Wegmann…
The Oval Office blowup was not sudden. It simmered from the start, which is evident from the transcript.
— Zelensky immediately brought up a US security guarantee; Trump opposes this but dropped it initially.
— Zelensky repeatedly contradicted claims that Europe gave a lot but less than the U.S. Trump moved on.
— Trump expressed sympathy for all parents of the war dead; Zelensky pushed back that the Russians invaded.
— After Trump repeated the U.S. policy of ceasefire first and security questions second, Zelensky gave a rebuttal, saying this framework “will not work.”
Trump finally blew up at the 43-minute mark after Zelensky:
A) Suggested twice that the US would soon come under threat from Russia in “the future.”
B) Questioned whether the entire diplomatic effort with Russia was even possible and contradicted the VP–“What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?”
Regardless of how you feel about the parties involved, per the transcript, it seems clear that the White House was not looking to pick a fight and that Zelensky was not ready to accept the already expressed U.S. position.
So many pundits are boldly declaring that Zelenskyy made a “mistake”, but when you step back and look at the bigger picture it doesn’t look like much of a “mistake” at all.
Could it be possible that this was Zelenskyy’s plan the entire time?
Interestingly, we are being told that Susan Rice, Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland and Alexander Vindman may have had a hand in how this meeting played out…
Zelensky repeatedly declined opportunities to sign the deal in Kyiv and Munich, and requested the meeting at the White House. It later came out that Rice and Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and Alexander Vindman may have been personally advising Zelensky to do this meeting in the way he did — that they recommended him to be hostile and to try to goad Trump into blowing up. Even though he didn’t, and even though Zelensky’s actions horrified many normal Americans, the Obama team went on the airwaves to falsely characterize what happened.
If Zelenskyy was hoping that European leaders would be so horrified that they would come rushing into his arms, then he certainly got his wish. On Sunday, leaders from all over Europe gathered for an “emergency summit” in London…
Leaders from Germany, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Romania were at the summit. The Turkish foreign minister, NATO secretary-general and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council were also in attendance.
They aren’t committing themselves to directly entering the war quite yet.
But they are a whole lot closer than they were a few days ago.
And that should deeply alarm all of us, because an apocalyptic war with Russia is one of the “three wars of the apocalypse” that I keep talking about.
We live in such perilous times, and there is far more going on behind the scenes than the general public is being told.
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About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.