By Sergii Nosenko 

President Donald J. Trump has spent more time and effort to find peace in Ukraine than a myriad of other domestic and international priorities.

His May 19, 2025, phone-shuttle-diplomacy with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is just another example of the patience and love of peace imbued in Trump.

The painful truth is that if the Ukrainian War ends, Putin remains in office.

Sadly, it is Zelensky, the leader of my country, who is the barrier to peace, because he knows that when he signs a peace treaty, he is also signing his resignation from office—and all the power he can his cronies have enjoyed while lording over us.

Zelensky knows he cannot put it off forever, but he is doing well enough so far.

On May 20, 2025, he began his second year after the end of his elected term. Thus, the man held up as the hero of democracy actually left democracy behind, packed away with his suits and neckties.

Please understand. Zelensky will not end the war, because he will have to face the voters again—and we are waiting for him.

When the war ends, Ukrainians will regain their tongues, and we will return to the beautiful and crazy politics that other free countries enjoy.

We see the lives of our soldiers wasted on madman tactics—and the bribes paid to keep the elite sons out of uniform. We also see that if you criticize Zelensky today, you will be wrapped up and taken away, because it is impossible today to criticize Zelensky without being tagged as a Russian spy.

Until then, we are stuck with a president-for-life, a virtual monarch, beyond reproach and incapable of making a mistake.

Zelensky’s martial law is not routine or constitutionally required

Many Americans, bathed in the myth of Zelensky as Ukraine’s George Washington, would be surprised to know that unlike Washington, who rejected the monarch’s crown at the end of the American Revolution, and who on his own accord returned to his farm after two terms as president, is now entering his second year after his term was supposed to expire.

Zelensky was sworn in on May 20, 2019, for a five-year term that should have expired 12 months ago. He signed a 90-day martial order Feb. 24, 2022, after it was passed by the Rada, our parliament, with provisions for almost automatic renewals. After Zelensky’s term expired, the Rada is now voting to renew martial law every 90 days.

We have had war in Ukraine since 2014, but there was never martial law until Zelensky and his crew took a chance and got away with it.

Zelensky, who always wears green because his name roughly translates to greenishness, has brought back the brutal Soviet days of my youth—renewed every 90 days.

Americans are told Zelensky’s term was extended by the Ukrainian Constitution because the country was at war, but the record shows that martial law is a legislative action, renewed every quarter with Zelensky’s signature.

In addition to suspending elections, subsequent amendments to the martial order have put all media under the Kiev government’s control and the outlawing of nearly a dozen opposition parties, including the Opposition Platform-For Life Party, the second largest bloc in the Rada.

American presidents never suspended elections during war

The contrast with the American experience is instructive here. In the War of 1812, President James Madison saw the British burn the White House, among other humiliations, but he did not suspend elections, seize the printing presses or outlaw the Federalist Party.

Presidents Abraham Lincoln, fighting the Civil War; Woodrow Wilson, fighting World War I; and Franklin Roosevelt, fighting World War II, all curtailed civil rights and restricted the media.

Yet, the elections went forward, even with the government facilitating the ballots for millions of soldiers mobilized far away from home.

Zelensky holds Ukraine hostage

Trump and his team have come to the realization that Zelensky is not ready for his final curtain call. The American president has devoted time and effort to bringing peace to my country, but it is possible he did not fully appreciate Zelensky’s interests and position.

The comic-cum-president is fighting a two-front war. The first front is his military intervention into the culturally Russian regions, to keep those Russians out of Russia.

The second front is his exploitation of the first front to shut down cultural and political life in the territory controlled by the Kiev government.

As soon as the shooting stops at the first front, the Ukrainian people, who have been biting their tongues out of both national loyalty and fear of reprisals, will toss him out of office.

The Ukrainian Civil War has brought death and destruction to my country, but for one man alone, it has brought glory and power.

Every day, Zelensky keeps the war going to preserve that glory and power, the suffering continues, and he mocks Washington as a fool for peacefully returning to Mount Vernon.

Sergii Nosenko was a 2019 candidate for Ukrainian president. He lives in the United States with his author wife Daria and their children to avoid the clampdown on President Volodymyr Zelensky's political critics. He is the founder and senior managing partner of the New York City-based IIP Holdings. 

Team Trump has been thinking outside the box, and it’s refreshing after four years of Biden malaise.

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