Zelenskyy Serves Europe Cold
A salad of small powers. Seasoned with enemies. Advised not to upset Trump.
Kharkiv lost power at minus eighteen degrees. Meanwhile in Davos, European diplomats were discussing maritime law.
At that same meeting, Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Europe as a group of small and middle powers influenced by actors hostile to Europe.
He did not come to Davos to ask for help. The target was not Moscow; that relationship is already defined by cruise missiles. The target was Brussels, Berlin, and every capital that has spent four years perfecting deeply concerned inaction. Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action today. The man whose energy grid is being methodically erased has run out of patience for procedural optimism.
Consider the math. Russian missiles that hit Ukrainian infrastructure in January 2026 were manufactured in 2026. Not stockpiled Soviet relics. Fresh off the line.
The sanctions regime has achieved something remarkable: punitive enough to enrage, ineffective enough to be irrelevant.
The shadow fleet makes this painfully clear. Aging, uninsured Russian tankers haul sanctioned oil along European shores, funding the missiles destroying Ukrainian cities. Zelenskyy’s question was blunt: Why can President Trump stop tankers from the shadow fleet and seize oil; but Europe doesn’t?
Washington seized the tanker Marinera off Iceland. Others followed in the Caribbean. America moved to kinetic interdiction. Europe, bound by theological devotion to UNCLOS and terrified of inconveniencing Greek shipping magnates, watched the convoys pass.
Zelenskyy revealed that European leaders advised him not to mention Tomahawks to the Americans; not to spoil the mood.
A nation fighting for survival is being coached on conversational etiquette.
Germany’s Taurus cruise missiles remain locked in Scholz’s desk drawer, hostage to Berlin’s conviction that bunker-busting weapons might escalate a war already featuring nuclear threats and deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure.
Into this vacuum steps the Trump administration’s Board of Peace. A billion dollars buys a permanent seat. Russia has been invited. The Kremlin is reportedly considering using frozen Western assets to pay the membership fee.
We cannot be part of the board alongside Russians or their allies, Zelenskyy stated. His objection is noted. It will be filed appropriately.
Europe did not solve its crises. It survived them.
The continent has failed to become a real global power whose actions scare bad actors. Instead, it remains trapped in the delusion of an Atlanticist order that no longer exists. Europe keeps trying to convince the U.S. president to change. But he won’t change.
The smart money is not on a European reawakening.
When Ukraine is with you, no one will wipe their feet on you, Zelenskyy concluded. The inverse hung unspoken in the Alpine air.
A salad, after all, is just something you eat before the main course.