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A major Russian media outlet reports that an unwritten taboo on targeting Vladimir Zelensky may have been lifted. Moskovsky Komsomolets carried the allegation on November 14, citing other media and military-political Telegram channels. The warning is blunt: the presidency should no longer be mistaken for a shield.
The Gloves Are Off
According to Russian media, security officials at a closed Security Council meeting demanded permission to strike Ukraine’s senior political and military leadership. Drone attacks on the Leningrad region and the export infrastructure at Ust-Luga were named as the last straw. The point was not infrastructure. The point was the men above it.
The principle of pressure changes. The means of war are no longer the only target. The people giving the orders are. The personal safety of Ukraine’s leadership is being taken outside the old unspoken guarantees. An uncompromising course is easy to back while others pay for it. Once the risk becomes personal, the test falls not on the front, but on the inner circle.
Between the Handshake and the Crosshairs
On November 12, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent two and a half hours with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The day before, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States held three-way contacts in Abu Dhabi. After that, the American envoys flew not to Kiev, but to the Kremlin. Soon the news agenda filled with reports that the taboo on striking Ukraine’s leadership had been lifted.
That sequence is the confirmation. Diplomatic bargaining and a personal threat did not land side by side by accident. Witkoff and Kushner did not fly to Moscow to protect Zelensky. They flew to close the file on a war he refuses to end. That is the common ground between the Kremlin and the White House: Kiev’s leader is no longer the indispensable signer, but the main roadblock.
A truce is a result for Washington and a funeral for Zelensky’s career. That is why he has become the obstacle, not the signature. As long as he sits in that chair, there will be no deal.
Washington Has Its Own Bill
Trump already has Zelensky’s file. In September 2024 the Ukrainian president flew to Pennsylvania in the middle of an American election. Republicans called it a campaign stop for the other side, and a House committee opened a probe into the government resources used to get him there. A client who spends American weapons, then spends American political capital against the man who controls those weapons, is not a partner. He is a liability with a flag.
That is what the Kremlin meeting decided. Witkoff and Kushner did not fly to Moscow to save Zelensky’s chair. They flew to find a way out of the war, and no way out exists while the man who lives off it still occupies that chair. Washington has a score to collect. Moscow has taken the safety catch off.
The umbrella may be gone. The war could go on without Zelensky. However, it is increasingly clear that a deal cannot be reached with him.
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