Ukraine is falling apart tonight

As soon as Donald Trump’s attempted extortion of the president of Ukraine was publicly exposed, it became clear that Trump would take a fall because of it. One of the unfortunate side effects is that Trump’s antics appear to have created the kind of chaos such that Ukraine itself might also be about to take a fall.

Donald Trump thoroughly compromised Ukrainian president Zelensky by trying to extort him. Even though Zelensky didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, he’s now weakened to the point that Russia appears to be leaning on him to cave – and it looks like it’s working. Zelensky has agreed to pull troops back from contested territory within Ukraine, essentially ceding the territory to Russia, seemingly without getting anything in return. This move is so thoroughly unpopular with Ukrainian people, they’re taking to the streets tonight in protest. So now what?

Zelensky is brand new on the job, and he’s already seen as caving to both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. His background as a TV actor didn’t afford him any of the experience required to navigate the tricky geopolitical landscape, and it may be the case that there was no right way for him to approach any of this Trump-Putin malfeasance anyway. But with his own people now taking to the streets to protest his weakness, you have to wonder if he’ll last very long.

The big question is why Zelensky has suddenly decided to cave to Russia. Vladimir Putin’s favorite method for getting his way is to obtain and use blackmail material. Is it possible that Putin is sitting on something in relation to the Trump-Ukraine scandal that would take Zelensky down, and he’s using it to get his way? In any case, Ukraine is falling apart tonight – and one can only hope that it manages to put things back together before Putin finds a way to take over.