Someone Needs to Get Ukraine's Zelensky Under Control

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

As RedState reported, a Russian-made missile struck a building in Poland on Tuesday killing two Polish civilians. That led to a severe case of bed-wetting in the media, as some suggested NATO should invoke Article Four or Article Five, paving the way for open conflict with Russia.

There was just one problem. Namely, the missile was actually Ukrainian, or at least that’s the conclusion the United States and some of its allies have come to. Things appear certain enough that Poland canceled the emergency meeting of NATO it had called.

Unfortunately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky only wants to accept one explanation, even if it’s been largely proven false. He took to social media in the immediate aftermath of the blast to blame Russia, calling it a terrorist act and demanding that NATO “act.”

Knowing what we know now, it’s astonishing to think that Zelensky jumped on the internet to ask for NATO to attack Russia based on an assumption he did not yet know was true. A major war between NATO and Russia isn’t the kind of thing you touch off on Twitter without having all the facts. Of course, there’s a worse explanation, and one I hate to suggest, which would be that Zelensky did have all the facts, knew it was a Ukrainian missile, and tried to set off a major conflict anyway.

Lacking evidence, though, I won’t go so far as to assume that. I think the most likely explanation here remains that Zelensky is looking for any hook to get NATO into the war, and he was willing to run with incomplete information to do it.

But now that we know what we know, there’s no excuse for him to go back out the next morning and double down. Yet, that’s exactly what he did.

Someone needs to get this guy under control before something much worse happens than what Europe is currently dealing with. I get that he’s defending his country, and there is no excuse for Russia’s invasion. I’m broadly supportive of the mission to expel Putin’s forces, even if I’m skeptical of how much money we are allocating to do it.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s incredibly irresponsible and dangerous to have Zelensky out there proclaiming unproven things that could literally see NATO fire on Russia. This war needs to end, and while I don’t think Ukraine has to capitulate in order to end it, it is starting to feel like Zelensky wants this to drag on. Right now, nations are sending him billions of dollars with no strings attached. There is a perverse incentive to keep escalating, even when Russia hasn’t provided the justification for that.

I hate having to even write these pieces because people like to jump to extremes. If you want some accountability for the tens of billions going to Ukraine, you are a “Putin puppet.” If you support Ukraine’s right to sovereignty, you are a “warmonger.” And yet, here I sit in the middle of both those accusations wanting accountability and believing Ukraine has a right to defend itself. It’s from that position that I believe Zelensky needs to be reeled in. He can’t be allowed to just keep mouthing off like he is without an actual strategy, accepted by the allies that are propping him up, in place.