Zelensky is about to be ousted – and the media is setting the stage

By derimot*no - Knut Lindtner/Martin Jay – July 25, 2025

Zelensky is on the verge of collapse and then he must be destroyed through character assassination. Now the moment has come: Zelensky must be removed. For years, he has been hyped up in Western media as a political genius – almost a Ukrainian Churchill – despite the fact that what he has said has rarely been anything more than empty talk, tailored to the needs of the moment.

Yet the NATO press, including NRK here at home, has cut and pasted quotes to make it appear as profound words of wisdom. And remember: the Storting gave him a standing ovation.

But now the front line in the east is unraveling, and to save what can still be saved of Western prestige in Ukraine, political flexibility is needed. Zelensky can no longer be used. The only problem is that you can't throw away a media-created god-image overnight. First, he must be demonized, and it is precisely this process that is now underway: the character assassination of Volodymyr Zelensky.

This is a game that Western media masters to the hilt – the art of turning people’s perception of reality upside down without them even noticing. It always happens in phases: first silence, then skepticism, then “revelations.” We have seen this before, and there are many methods. For example, you can “reveal” Ukrainian corruption – as if this were something new. Or you can bring to light information that has been known for years among informed circles, but about which the press has so far remained silent – such as Zelensky’s cocaine addiction.

It's all an unpleasant spectacle. A political slaughter of a figure who – in collaboration with the US and NATO – has helped destroy his own country.

Knut Lindtner
Editor

FT's character assassination of Zelensky is a hint at what Trump is thinking

The merciless character assassination of Zelensky in the Financial Times suggests that something is about to happen in Ukraine.

It has finally happened. After months of speculation about when the Western media would finally take a clear and unambiguous stand against Ukraine’s corrupt president, it has now happened – and in the most pro-EU major newspaper of them all. The recent whole-hearted attack on Zelensky in the Financial Times (FT) indicates that something is afoot in Ukraine, and it will likely mean the president either having his own Ceausescu moment or simply fleeing the country. How long does he have?

The mainstream media always likes to be on the “right side of history,” and the FT’s publication of this article is an ominous sign. It was published at about the same time as the British conservative magazine The Spectator did the same. The timing is striking, especially since just a few days earlier, unconfirmed “reports” appeared on social media that Trump had reportedly told Zelensky to resign – with hints about who could take over.

At the same time, several reports have shown that Zelensky is in a state of panic, including the arrest of anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin. Interestingly, former minister Oleksandr Kubrakov was also attacked on the same day. During the searches of both houses, armed men reportedly showed up without search warrants and refused access to lawyers.

The arrest of this anti-corruption campaigner is significant, as is the assessment in the FT article itself:

"A shutdown of the country's most famous anti-corruption activist could not have happened without at least the tacit consent of President Zelensky - if not his active approval," the newspaper writes.

The importance and timing of the FT piece should not be underestimated. It is not just about the situation on the battlefield, where the Russians are advancing and it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Ukrainians simply do not have enough manpower. It is also about Zelensky himself, who is now beginning to be portrayed as a dictator clinging to power and using the state of emergency to crack down on any hint of opposition. Ukraine has effectively become a totalitarian state, and Zelensky’s paranoia is now becoming widely known and discussed.

The FT – one of the media giants that previously supported Zelensky and barely considered his brutal crackdown worth reporting – is now even reporting on activists being harassed by Zelensky’s lackeys. This is a significant turnaround, and the article is remarkably detailed and passionate.

The same FT failed to report on several incidents earlier in the war that could have tarnished Zelensky’s image – such as the brutal murder of American blogger Gonzalo Lira – is now being covered in depth. Even when Zelensky’s main opponent was shot dead in broad daylight outside his child’s school in Madrid in May, the FT chose to cover the case by portraying Andriy Portnov as a criminal “wanted in Kiev for treason.”

We can safely assume that the FT has now reversed course – its support for Zelensky is over.

The newspaper quotes Shabunin and Kubrakov as describing the searches as politically motivated. They claim the SBU (Ukraine's Security Service) did not present any court order and refused to wait for lawyers to arrive.

Vitaliy Shabunin explained in the article what the action was intended to achieve. He told the FT:

“Zelensky is using my case to send a signal to two groups that could threaten him. The message is this: If I can go after Shabunin publicly – under the media’s attention and despite public support – then I can go after any of you.”

The FT goes even further in its analysis and can almost be called a catalyst for a possible revolution.

“This is a classic Russian strategy to divide society, which could lead to protests in the streets,” MP Oleksandra Ustinova told the newspaper.

The author suggests that the West no longer has much interest in maintaining the illusion that Ukraine is a kind of Western democracy that has only had to temporarily renounce certain principles. This apathetic attitude, it is argued, has given Zelensky free rein to push his authoritarian rule to new heights.

A Western diplomat in Kiev, who has worked closely with Ukrainian civil society, said that the cases against Shabunin and Kubrakov “are not isolated incidents . ”

“There is a sense in the president’s office that the West – especially the US – has shifted its focus,” the diplomat said. “That the rule of law and good governance no longer matter so much.” The FT claims that Zelensky is testing the limits of how far he can go, but does not directly say that this is because he is in his final days in power and hopes to cling on by cracking down even harder on anyone who could potentially threaten him – or simply question his strategy.

The recent American gesture of sending some anti-aircraft missiles by the Trump administration will have no effect. The measure came far too late and is far too little to make a difference. Trump has backed himself into a corner with his 50-day deadline with Putin, and the most likely thing now is that the immature man in the White House is looking for a scapegoat to distract voters from the real story: that he must back down from his exaggerated threats against Russia.

Knut Lindtner

Martin Jay

The article is taken from the Strategic Culture Foundation.

The text represents the author's opinion, not necessarily that of www.derimot.no.