“Stop Blaming the People”: An Open Letter to Zelenskyy

Source: Author’s Facebook page
Dear Mr. President, I did not vote for you — and today I know for certain that in 2019 I preserved my conscience. Yet I remained silent, because 73% of the country had the right to make their own choice — a right for which we have all paid an unbearably high price.

As someone for whom the war began in 2014, I listened with fury to your rhetoric about how we just need to “stop shooting” and “look each other in the eye.” While you painted yourself as a “peacemaker,” the country was methodically disarmed.

You downsized the army.
Missile programs were scaled back.
A vertical hierarchy of security forces was built for your own purposes, down to the last cog.

And then the public was told to go “have a barbecue.”
You opened checkpoints weeks before the invasion and cleared the approaches to the border.
You lied to the people.
And they believed you, because a president has no right to lie on the eve of war.

And thousands of those “barbecues” never returned.
The graves in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions are the price tag of your lies.

This is on your conscience — if there is still any room left for one.

And now you speak to us about “the choice between dignity and a key partner.” Seriously?
Where was your dignity when we stood on Maidan, while you were speaking in Moscow, mocking Ukraine in front of those who are killing us today?

You threaten us with “losing a partner,” yet it was under your leadership that the country became embroiled in an international corruption scandal involving American funds, marked by American banks, and which also made its way to Moscow.
These were not some random profiteers in Mindich’s schemes.
This is your vertical. Your team. Your “own people.”

You are now suggesting that the people should “agree to the 28 points,” which your negotiator, Umerov, allegedly “didn’t see” this morning — and which, by evening, had already turned into an ultimatum.

You frighten us with “the hardest winter,” yet you shift responsibility for decisions that you have fully monopolized.
Likewise, you destroyed the independence of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Furthermore, you brought the security forces under your personal control.
Moreover, you seized the media space.
The only institution you failed to subdue was NABU — and only because foreign partners and the fear of even a cardboard Maidan stopped you.

And now, when your system is cracking apart, you are trying to dump everything onto the people.
The very people you deceived, intimidated, silenced — and whom your lies have led to death.

You know what, Mr. President?
Maybe it’s time for you to go.
And the sooner you do, the better the country’s chances.
We’ll manage without you.

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