Zelensky has written off the United States.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Nikoletta Stoyanova / Getty; Beata Zawrzel / Getty.
APRIL 18, 2026
For more than a year after Donald Trump returned to the White House, Ukraine held out hope—at least publicly—of winning him over. Trump, who revealed his affection for Russia’s Vladimir Putin again and again, largely halted American military aid to Kyiv. He insulted Ukrainian leaders regularly, personally berating President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February 2025. Nevertheless, Ukraine diligently took part in Trump’s peace negotiations, which were tilted to reward Putin’s invasion and turned out to be fruitless. Zelensky agreed to mineral deals that supposedly promised to enrich Americans. He even lavishly praised Trump himself. Despite Ukrainian leaders’ growing doubts, they calculated that speaking sweetly of the American president would do no harm and just might gain his favor.
But now Kyiv appears to have given up on the United States. It is aggressively seeking new diplomatic and military partners—for instance, by sharing its hard-won expertise in drone warfare with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and forging arms-production agreements with Germany. Ukraine has sent drones to attack oil-export facilities near St. Petersburg, deep inside enemy territory, in defiance of what Zelensky called “signals” from unspecified “partners” to avoid striking Russian energy infrastructure.
Using language that would until recently have been unthinkable, Zelensky has indicated that he no longer views the United States as a reliable ally and, even more astonishingly, that all of Europe needs to start moving on from the transatlantic relationship.
In an effort to keep energy prices from spiking further amid the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, the Trump administration eased sanctions on Russian oil producers and sellers. In an interview last week with Italian radio, Zelensky criticized that decision. “In my view, Russia played the Americans again—played the president of the United States,” he said. (The sanctions waiver expired earlier this week.) Lest anyone outside Italy miss his point, Zelensky amplified an English-language version of his comments on X.
Not long afterward, Zelensky argued that, if the U.S. is truly planning to withdraw from NATO, as Trump has threatened, European democracies need a whole new security architecture. To defend itself from Russia without American assistance, Zelensky suggested, the European Union would need the capabilities of the nonmembers Norway, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Ukraine.
He was drawing a sharp contrast with European leaders who, in the past 15 months, have desperately pretended that the United States remains committed to its traditional allies. In the process, some leaders have debased themselves, as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did when he referred to Trump as “Daddy.” (Rutte, who is Dutch, subsequently described the comment as a “language problem.”) No one wanted to admit that Trump’s return had made the U.S. a threat to European security.
A Ukrainian operator uses an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a metal detector to search for mines in the Kharkiv region.
Ukraine’s new willingness to speak honestly results from a combination of factors. The United States has reduced what little weaponry it was selling to Ukraine to conserve supplies for its war against Iran. Although at various points Trump has discussed putting harsh sanctions on Russia—perhaps to appease pro-Ukraine sentiments within his own party—he has lately not bothered with such gestures. Most discouraging for Ukrainians, the Trump administration has frequently pressured them to cede their territory and fellow citizens in the Donbas to Putin as part of a peace deal.
Those developments have persuaded Zelensky and others to speak the truth about America’s tightening alignment with Putin and to warn other European countries about the danger they now face.
The change in Ukraine’s public posture comes as the country’s military situation has improved, at least relative to its struggles last year. Relying overwhelmingly on their homegrown drone industry and military structure, Ukrainian forces have regained the initiative in many areas. In recent months, they have reportedly caused more casualties than Russia can replace—and have taken back more territory than Russia has seized. Along the front lines, Ukraine has strengthened and extended its so-called drone wall, which restricts the movement of flesh-and-blood Russian forces. Earlier this week, Kyiv claimed to have seized a Russian position and captured a number of Russian soldiers while exposing no Ukrainians at all, only unmanned aerial and ground vehicles.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians have gained greater confidence in launching drone strikes on mid- and long-range targets far behind the front lines, as the attack near St. Petersburg showed. Finally, Ukraine continues to bottle up Russian naval power in the Black Sea. Vessels even in the most protected Russian naval bases are no longer safe from Ukrainian attack.
For the past 15 months, U.S. officials and many Western analysts have been fixated on Ukrainian weakness. Trump infamously insisted last year that Ukrainians had “no cards” to play. But their ability to adapt even without U.S. aid has been startling. Now a global leader in drone development and manufacturing, Ukraine is reportedly planning to produce up to 7 million military unmanned aerial vehicles in 2026.
Ukrainians would much rather have the United States on their side than on Russia’s. From 2022 to 2024, Washington provided more military aid than anyone else to Ukraine. Although much of this aid was delivered slowly, and in some cases with maddening limits attached, it was crucial in helping Ukraine survive the first few years of the war. But Ukrainians do not believe that losing American support will inevitably lead to their defeat. They see how they have sustained the war effort, using their own resources and with the help of European partners, even as the U.S. has moved away. Writing the United States off as a friend might once have been a sign of doom for Ukraine. It isn’t anymore.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Phillips Payson O’Brien is a professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland. He is the author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler—How War Made Them, and How They Made War.
Krasnov appointed Witless, a close friend and long-standing putler shill as his “peace envoy.” All Krasnov’s friends, as well as his political appointees, have this same characteristic. Funny that …..
From Wiki :
“In 2018, Witkoff opposed sanctions against Russia for its occupation of Crimea.
Witkoff has praised Russian president Putin and has appeared to support Russian government claims about its war against Ukraine. He said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “not necessarily” started by Russia, that NATO had a significant role in provoking the conflict, and that most Eastern Ukrainians want to live under Russian rule.
Witkoff said he is certain that Putin is not going to invade Europe and is not interested in the rest of Ukraine other than the annexed southeastern Ukraine.”
Witless’s “proof” of the desire of Donbas to be ruZZian was based putler’s “referendum.”
Caolan Robertson uncovered Witless’s active business links in the cauldron of devilry.
Krasnov himself has repeatedly lied that Zel started the war, repeatedly abused, berated and sneered at him.
In 2025 he said :
“You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Krasnov won the battle of Kursk for putler.
His actions have killed thousands of Ukrainian servicemen and civilians.
How many more will die before Krasnov finally ends up in an institution for the criminally insane?
The disgusting orange criminal has never done anything that favors the victim of this terrible war, but plenty to benefit the aggressive russian gangster, whom he adores more than his own grandchildren. It is no surprise that Ukraine is giving up on this immoral bastard.
Bulgaria has just gone full putler.
When will we start seeing grovelling comments about this fucking turd Radev on Krasnov’s Lies Social?
Radev said he won’t sabotage NATO. He just hates the EU (the institution, not the members) like myself.
He will stop all aid to Ukraine.
He is a pure Kremlin asset like OrbanaZi.
Of course he hates the EU. He understands that membership for Ukraine would lift them out of poverty, as it did for Poland.
Like all putler shills he wants Ukraine to be poor, vulnerable and friendless.
Poland is now a $1 trillion GDP country; in the world’s top 20.
That is Ukraine’s future once in the EU, which means that they could afford to spend $100 billion per year on defence.
Which is what they need.
This wouldn’t be bad at all if the EU weren’t so fucking weak.