“Ukraine has already lost this war,” the 78-year-old man said with conviction, looking confidently into the lenses of Polish television cameras. Answering the sharp questions of journalists who showed touching solidarity with the Ukrainians, this man, demonstrating his vast political experience, carefully chose his words, giving clear answers. He consistently stood by Putin’s positions, proving that it was the Ukrainians who caused this war.
“Sixteen thousand Russian-speaking Ukrainians were killed in the Donbas by Ukrainian nationalists,” he said, also alluding to Ukraine’s bombing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was an act of terrorism.
When asked why he was presenting Putin’s version and not Zelensky’s, this gray-haired man immediately replied: “Don’t call Putin a ‘criminal,’ because you will have to sit down with him at the negotiating table.” At the same time, he stated that “there will be no Russian parade in Kyiv.” Ukraine will give up 20% of its lands and will remain depopulated and destroyed. Trump is normalizing relations with Russia, and 75% of Poles oppose the deployment of their troops to Ukraine. Because “it is easy to enter into conflict with Russia” (polsatnews.pl, 25/02/2025).
Who is this mysterious character from our friendly Poland? Meet him: he is LESZEK MILLER — former Prime Minister of Poland (2001-2004), long-time member of the Sejm, Member of the European Parliament, leader of the Union of the Democratic Left, publicist. One of the “fathers” of Poland’s accession to the European Union.
But. Also a faithful disciple of Lenin, a member of the Central Committee and Politburo of the Polish People’s Party, a party communist figure who was a member of the highest nomenclature of the Polish People’s Republic, who easily jumped into the leading state structures of the Third Rzeczpospolita, declaring himself a social democrat. A great friend of Putin and a supporter of friendly relations with Russia, who categorically denied the Kremlin’s involvement in the Polish national tragedy – the crash (actually a Russian terrorist act – RL’s note) of a Polish government plane in 2010 near Smolensk.
Now Mr. Miller is clearly enjoying hiding Ukraine (is it premature?), showing solidarity with Donald Trump and supporting the narratives of Russian propaganda. Does an experienced politician not understand that the victory and enslavement of Ukraine by Russia will pose a mortal threat to Poland, which will become a buffer zone between Moscow and Berlin?
“Putin LOST this war, we will see Ukraine in the EU and NATO,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb confidently declared at a summit in Kyiv (UNIAN, 02/24/2025). This was not a voice of false optimism to appease the masters. This was the voice of a country that in 1940 and 1944 experienced Russian imperialism in its destructive form of destruction and occupation, but was able to preserve its sovereignty and statehood thanks to the wisdom of its leadership, primarily Marshal Karl Mannerheim (1867-1951).
He lived and studied in Kharkiv for a while, visited Kyiv, and was treated in Odessa. There was a time when the young lieutenant Mannerheim served in the same company of the Russian Guard and was friends with cornet Pavel Skoropadsky, the future hetman of the Ukrainian State. A Swede by origin, Mannerheim became the military leader of Finland in its fight against the USSR.
The histories of the distant countries – Ukraine and Finland – have become bizarrely intertwined thanks to the bandit actions of the Russian neighbor, and now, in a difficult time of losses and painful decisions, we should remember the words of Mannerheim, spoken in 1940 at a critical moment in the finale of the Winter War: “We … cannot allow the bitterness caused by harsh conditions to cloud our ability to think critically. The fact that the army is not crushed gives us the opportunity to negotiate peace for the time being. If the defense collapses and our forces are stretched to the limit, we will lose this opportunity… Peace must be concluded immediately”…
And further: “The Finnish delegation… signed the peace treaty on March 12. Its terms were exceptionally difficult… The strategic position of Finland was dealt a devastating blow… The peace treaty took away our security and freedom of foreign policy… The political result of the Winter War for Finland itself was, first of all, the preservation of independence, bought at a high price. Mortal danger was repelled by the ultimate exertion of the forces of the entire nation… The people of Finland can be proud of their armed forces, which, although they were forced to yield to superior forces, nevertheless remained invincible” (quoting from the book “Memoirs” by Carl Gustav Mannerheim, 2014).
The other day, Ukraine, Europe, and the world marked the sad third anniversary of Russia’s bloody large-scale aggression, launched on February 24, 2022, on Putin’s orders. During this time, the Yalta-Helsinki world order has been completely destroyed, and the European security system built after the end of the Cold War has collapsed, engulfed in flames, like the twin skyscrapers in New York after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
An interesting fact: the United States alone, from 1990 to 2015, concluded 1,100 peace treaties as part of building the architecture of international security, which is now destroyed as a result of Russian aggression.
* * *
Three years of war… 1,097 days of suffering, death, destruction, fear for the lives of children, loved ones, and those at the front. And 1,097 days of courage, resistance, fierce, exhausting battles, victories over a ferocious enemy.
Now let’s compare the duration of Ukraine’s resistance with similar indicators of some European countries in the 20th century:
– Finland resisted (1939-1940) the Soviet Union for 105 days.
Waged an armed struggle against Hitler’s Germany (1939-1941):
– Norway – 62 days;
– France – 46 days;
– Poland – 35 days;
– Belgium – 18 days;
– Yugoslavia – 11 days;
– Holland – 4 days;
– Denmark – 1 day.
Ukraine, with its weak oligarchic economy, smaller human resources, pacifist unprofessional government, and insufficiently trained and non-demobilized Armed Forces, thwarted the blitzkrieg of the “second army of the world,” dealt it mortal blows, and humiliated Russia and Putin, thwarting their strategic plans to destroy an independent state.
The feat of the Ukrainian people and its Armed Forces will forever go down in world history.
In my new book “The Third World War of Ukraine” (Independent Ukrainian Media Center, 2024), I have used a new definition – “VICTORY-DEFEAT of Ukraine.”
This is not a meaningless verbal oxymoron, but a capacious, complex hybrid concept that conveys all the tragic complexity and ambiguity of the phenomenon of this war.
On the one hand, most world analysts are convinced of the shameful defeat of Russia, which in three years has not achieved its main goals of destroying the Ukrainian state and enslaving the Ukrainian political nation.
On the other hand, this phrase indicates the tragic loss of Ukraine in view of the terrible irreparable demographic casualties, massive mental stress, millions of refugees, exiles and vagrants, poverty caused by the destruction of energy infrastructure, housing, loss of fertile lands and other misfortunes.
The ambivalence of the concept of VICTORY-DEFEAT should not generate capitulation, but on the contrary – temper the will to resist in conditions where there are no good solutions. All options for ending the war available today are bitter and associated with significant losses and painful compromises.
But there are two red-blooded lines that a nation must not cross if it wants to survive:
Preserving the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a reliable defender of the people and the state;
Ensuring the existence of the Ukrainian State as a guarantee of the indestructibility of our people, our land and our civilization (history, language, culture, religion)
The war between Russia and Ukraine, in my opinion, has already escalated into World War III – I expressed this view back in 2015. General Zaluzhny believes that this war will become global in 2024 due to the participation in it, in addition to Russia, North Korea and Iran. A similar opinion was also expressed by General Budanov, the head of the military intelligence of Ukraine, who stated that most of the developed countries of the world are involved in the Russian-Ukrainian war, which means that the Third World War is already underway (“Correspondent”, 27/02/2025).
This war has not yet turned into a full-scale global nuclear conflict between the North and the South. However, global chaos, the destruction of the international security system, growing anxiety, the arms race, the accelerated conclusion of military alliances – all these symptoms indicate the approach of the inexorable explosion of the world volcano, and only a miracle can save humanity from a new global war.
Such a Planetary Wonder, World Magician, Savior of the Earth from all wars, almighty Peacemaker and Peacemaker proclaimed himself 45/47th President of the United States Donald Trump, whose coming to power in 2025 radically changed the geopolitical structure of the world, turned upside down, as if in a surreal dream, the usual ideas about Good and Evil, enemies and friends, loyalty to the Fatherland and betrayal of it.
A narcissistic narcissist with delusions of grandeur and a complex sexual biography, a businessman-dealer, obsessed with money, deeply immoral and cynical.
Watching his speeches and answers to questions, I, as a doctor, came to the conclusion that Donald Trump suffers from deep sclerosis of the cerebral vessels, which causes constant lying, confusion of thoughts, forgetting numbers and facts, continuous repetition of obsessive ideas.
And it doesn’t matter whether Trump is formally a KGB agent “Krasnov” or not. His devotion to Putin is much deeper than the obedience of a recruited spy. This is the submission of a weak-minded slave to a cruel Master, spiritual groveling before him… (read “The Unrevealed Self” by Carl Jung).
Therefore, I recommend that all domestic Trump fans and Trumpophiles discard their beautiful illusions. Especially since much more terrible and dangerous figures flutter behind Trump – Elon Musk and J.D. Vance, behind whom their ideological guru – the preacher of techno-fascism, the zoological enemy of Ukraine, the pro-Russian philosopher of darkness Curtis Yarvin, is hidden.
Ukraine should prepare for the worst-case scenario, in which Donald Trump and his team are involved. It is no coincidence that John Bolton, Trump’s former advisor, declared that the President’s 45/47 ceasefire agreement in Ukraine is “close to surrender.”
“Bitterness cannot cloud our ability to think critically.” Let us remember these words of Mannerheim in moments of brutal choice. I would add: bitterness and illusions. Eternal Ukrainian naive illusions – hopes for Polubotka’s gold, for Leopard tanks, Taurus missiles, mythical F16 aircraft, for the kindness of grandfather Biden and the formidable figure of Trump or the charming smile of Ursula von der Leyen, which will save Ukraine.
Trump has sown one of the most dangerous illusions in a war-torn country: the illusion of a quick peace, although it is in Putin’s interests to drag out this war and achieve the complete surrender of Ukraine. One of the destructive illusions is the Ukrainian belief in the magic wand of allied aid. Unfortunately, the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction, as the example of the United States shows.
Among our allies, there are no such close neighbors as Hungary and Slovakia. We could have lost Romania too if Calin Georgescu, who was one step away from the presidency, had won the elections.
Austria, Greece, Serbia and a number of other countries are not our allies, and 46% of Germans support the TERMINATION of military and financial aid to Ukraine (sprotyv.info, 02/25/2025), despite the coming to power of the CDU leader Friedrich Merz.
Thanks to Zelensky’s shortsightedness and rudeness, we are losing our closest, most natural ally – Poland, which accuses the Ukrainian leadership of betrayal, ingratitude and complete subservience to the interests of Germany.
At the same time, both the Poles – both Tusk’s ruling coalition and the opposition PiS party – are playing along with the pro-Russian, noisy group of far-right politicians who are fanning the hostile myth of “Bandera’s Ukraine”, “Ukrainization/Banderization of Poland” and demanding the adoption of a law banning the deployment of Polish soldiers to Ukraine as part of European peacekeeping forces.
I am not saying these unfortunate things to sow despair, because in fact we still have loyal friends in Great Britain, France, Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltics – but we must be prepared for cruel and unexpected turns of history.
Today, in the fourth year of intense fighting, the military-political fate of Ukraine is being decided. And today, more than ever, the question arises of changing the current leadership of the state and replacing the Zelensky-Yermak regime with a government of national unity with the participation of the opposition, headed by a military leader.
Specifically, General Valery Zaluzhny.Конкретно – генералом Валерієм Залужним.
President Zelensky, who did not want (or was unable to) legitimize his continued tenure with the help of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, should, in my opinion, fulfill his promise and abandon his attempt at re-election in the next elections. And not because Trump and Putin, a scoundrel and provocateur who meddles in Ukrainian affairs with a smile like Yudushka Golovlev, want this.
Volodymyr Zelensky, who did not know and never loved Ukraine (I remember how he proposed to award the historical title of Great Ukrainian instead of Taras Shevchenko to the Odessa joker Zhvanetsky), experienced both a fantastic surge of world fame in 2022-2023 and a shameful humiliation from the White House in 2025. He read brilliant speeches written by speechwriters very well, and answered journalists’ questions very clumsily and helplessly, getting irritated and showing petty vindictiveness. History and, perhaps, the court will assess his activities. But he has exhausted his potential and his star has faded.
Ukraine, which needs national and political unity more than ever (and Zelensky is today a factor in the country’s discord), deserves to be led by a person who defended freedom and independence on the battlefields; a person who understands not only purely military problems, but also geopolitical, strategic and national-historical issues, a president whom the majority of society would trust – even when making very difficult decisions.
A person who is able to start building the Ukrainian State No. 2, cleansing it of the dirt and shame of previous years. I see Valery Zaluzhny as such a person.
* * *
I am 90 years old. I have no other dream than to live to see peace in Ukraine. I am convinced of the ultimate victory of Ukraine and the fall of Russia under the weight of the crimes committed by this people. But this could happen in twenty or fifty years. If I do not live to see it, the Ukrainians will live to see it.
We are stubborn. God and Taras Shevchenko are with us.
We will win.
Yuriy SHCHERBAK,
writer,
Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary
of Ukraine to the USA, Canada, Israel, Chairman of the
Council of the
Forum, “Chas”
