Volodymir Zelensky, Fire Your Foreign Minister Now

Volodymyr Zelensky is one of the best propagandists in the world right now. He’s had more than a few missteps, including the huge mistake of offending Donald Trump and nearly causing a break with the United States in 2025 (largely because he listened to his allies in the Democratic Party who egged him on to insult Trump before their first meeting), but his record overall has been stellar. 

I don’t say that as a criticism. As a war president, propaganda is one of the most critical functions of his job, and without his ability to rally his own people and the world to his side in 2022, Ukraine would be run by Putin. 

After his disastrous 2025, he more than recovered; Ukraine has become one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world, is arguably beating Russia in the war, and has become a vital source of military technology for the West. I actually believe I was wrong to suggest that Zelensky should concede Crimea and Eastern Ukraine; he actually has a shot at retaking Crimea. 

With all that in mind, I cannot fathom why his Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs tweeted this in the midst of a migrant crisis that has mobilized much of Europe to rebel against Spain’s Prime Minister:

Destablization? An invasion isn’t destabilizing? I guess we don’t need to worry about Russia invading Ukraine any longer? Pandering to the European left, who have in fact continued to happily finance Putin’s Russian war economy for four years now, has gotten Ukraine into the… pic.twitter.com/gIBIiSkXZM

— Darby Freeman (@DarbyFreeman2) July 31, 2026

We have detected an intensive Russian propaganda campaign across Europe using pictures from Ceuta to sow destabilization. 

There have been more than 1,500 publications on outlets identified by analysts as a pro-Russian network, led by Pravda and RT. Pravda Spanish has posted almost 300 of them. Every language edition of RT has pushed more than 25 news items on the issue.

For years, Moscow has used migration and other sensitive topics to stoke fear and destabilize European countries. 

This is not about the situation itself, but about the way Russia tries to exploit any topic that can benefit its agenda. The only way to protect the public from this interference is to cut it off. 

All Russian propaganda resources should be completely banned in every European country that takes its national security seriously.

Destablization? An invasion isn’t destabilizing? I guess we don’t need to worry about Russia invading Ukraine any longer? Pandering to the European left, who have in fact continued to happily finance Putin’s Russian war economy for four years now, has gotten Ukraine into the exact situation it is in now.

Read the room, man. Not only is he wrong on the substance, but he is also saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time, putting Ukraine on the losing side of an 80-20 issue for most Europeans. He is basically calling some of his strongest allies in Europe puppets of Vladimir Putin. 

While this is not exactly a misstep on Zelensky’s part, at least not yet, it follows some genuine missteps in recent weeks. First, he fired Mykhailo Fedorov, the immensely popular Minister of Defense, and the man who engineered the remarkable shift in military strategy that turned the war around. Fedorov did so by revamping the military procurement process, pushing most tactical decision-making to the lowest level possible, and instituting the campaign to strangle Russia’s logistics.

In doing so, he challenged traditional military leaders, undermined traditional defense procurement folks, and, not coincidentally, made the kind of corruption the big boys liked much more difficult. 

They fought back and won. Until they didn’t. The country erupted in protests, and Zelensky reversed course and fired the top general who pressured him to fire Federov, installing an ally of Federov. 

It wasn’t only Ukrainians who wondered what Zelensky was thinking; many of his biggest cheerleaders in the West wondered as well. 

This has been an extraordinary year for Ukraine, reversing a couple of not-so-good ones, and Zelensky is in danger of blowing it. 

He has always had a problem with believing his own press, largely because it was almost uniformly positive until 2025. European leaders saw their interests closely tied to his, and often for less-than-savory reasons, and that has been one cause of the missteps; he thought he could do no wrong. 

Well, he can and does, and he needs to shut this guy up because after causing all that damage with Trump last year, this won’t help in either Europe or America. Russia may be the cause of his troubles, but Russian propaganda moves few people in either America or Europe, and the existence of bots or RT is not causing the angst over the invasion we are seeing today. 

So, Mr. Zelensky, do the smart thing and fire this guy. Not only is he wrong, but he is insulting your strongest allies, which is even worse for Ukraine. 

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