When silence is not surrender
By SERGEY MAIDUKOV
In 2014, when Ukraine’s Donbas region began to fall to pro-Russian militants, many families packed up and fled their dangerous neighbor.
Ukraine can’t leave, tethered to Russia along a 2,000-kilometer border. But it could feel relatively safe as a NATO member or with the United States as an ally.
The United States has never been Ukraine’s ally. Now it isn’t even a partner.
When a reporter asked whether he thought President Donald Trump was treating Ukraine as a scapegoat for his own problems, given high fuel prices and the ongoing Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paused for a full 15 seconds. Then, with a grin, he told the intrigued room: “This is my answer.”
They say, “Silence gives consent.” The Ukrainian president used this eloquently, demonstrating that he had not forgotten his comedy past.
The day before, Trump had launched into a tirade against Zelenskyy, accusing him of “making the world oil price higher” and claiming he was “more difficult to deal with than Putin.”
“He wants to make problems for the world,” Trump insisted of Zelenskyy. “I suggest they get a new leader.”
This was echoed by the Kremlin’s mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov, who said on Friday that Zelenskyy has “no desire” for a peaceful resolution, adding that “on that point, we are in complete agreement with President Trump.”
Indeed, it’s impossible not to notice the similarity in the views of President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. They both hail from that distant past when people whispered behind a raped woman’s back, “She provoked it.”
Putin used this false accusation to justify his “special military operation” in Ukraine. Trump did the same in Iran. In this, they both look like apt pupils of You-Know-Who from 20th-century history.
La Fontaine’s old fable about the Wolf and the Lamb remains relevant today. A predator takes any excuse for aggression. If there isn’t one, it attacks its prey without reason.
Moscow shows no sign of willingness to end the war. Putin sees peace solely as Ukraine’s capitulation, and when he invited Zelenskyy to Moscow, it sounded like mockery rather than a sincere invitation to negotiate.
Meanwhile, Trump’s envoys keep privately pressing Kyiv to agree to a deal that looks more like a surrender on Russia’s terms than a compromise.
She provoked them.
I remember that phrase from a long time ago. There were rumors about a girl in our neighborhood who used to wear a skirt that was too short and meet the wrong guys. One day, she had to return home with a split lip and a black eye. Everyone pointed fingers at her, whispering that she was asking for trouble. Her family moved to avoid people’s stares.
Ukraine is doomed to stay where history and geography have put it.
This is what those trying to push Zelenskyy to sacrifice Ukrainian territory for the sake of peace should not forget. He may not have the cards, as Trump claimed. But he does have maps, and they clearly indicate what belongs to Russia and what does not.
Doesn’t the White House have a world map with borders established by international law? They don’t align with the ones Putin draws in the Kremlin.
An aggressor and a rapist are always despicable. But those who help them overcome their victims’ resistance, knowingly or not, bear a responsibility of their own.
The Ukrainian government said last Tuesday that it had not received its usual early warning from the U.S. before a Russian ballistic missile struck a major power plant in Kyiv and damaged a residential building. Around the same time, Ukraine experienced outages from its Starlink satellite network, leaving its military temporarily blind and deaf.
Trump and Starlink owner Elon Musk both denied any involvement in the incident. They also echoed each other in declaring that Ukraine needs a new leader. Oddly enough, this is exactly what Putin had been seeking from the very start.
He said Ukraine had asked for it. He said the West had provoked Russia.
In reality, the war didn’t start in 2022, but eight years earlier. There were tens of thousands of dead, bombings, burning buildings, and refugees.
In 2014, after fleeing Donetsk, my family received sidelong glances in western Ukraine. They thought we were to blame for what had happened because we hadn’t fought back against Russia on our own soil. They demanded to know why we hadn’t spoken.
When you suddenly find yourself surrounded by armed men in balaclavas, you become less talkative, right?
Silence of this kind is not consent. It is the helplessness of a victim of a robbery.
Zelenskyy’s significant silence at the press conference was a different kind of silence.
“I’m so thankful that we have such huge support from the EU Council, Commission, and leaders – real leaders – so that they have stayed with us from the very beginning of this war,” he said as he walked into the summit last week.
Trump’s name was not among them, and it is unlikely that it ever will be.
“We will keep living, fighting, and most importantly, living with dignity,” the Ukrainian president said.
Dignity. This is something that politicians may lack, but can never be taken away from the people.
Sergey Maidukov is a Ukrainian writer and journalist based in Kyiv.
