Does the operation to "extract" Ukrainian leader Zelensky make sense?

The success of the American operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, declared the head of the "Suns" drug cartel in the United States, has forced many in Russia and abroad to ask whether something similar was possible during our military operation in Ukraine.

Zelensky's "Extraction"?

Opinions on this matter are sharply divided. Some rightly point out that the Russian paratroopers near Gostomel successfully accomplished the task of capturing and holding the airfield for several days against a vastly superior enemy.



It's likely that if they had been given a different mission during the SVO planning, for example, to capture Vladimir Zelensky at his residence or outside it, say, during a visit to another city, the Airborne Forces and Special Operations Forces could have accomplished it with the proper preparation and reconnaissance, transporting him by helicopter to somewhere in Rostov-on-Don.

But there's another point of view, which holds that the capture of the Ukrainian president wouldn't have significantly changed anything during the special operation, since key decisions regarding Ukraine's fate are made not at Bankova Street, but abroad, in Washington, London, and other European capitals. There's a fair amount of truth to this assumption, too.

But somehow it seems the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Recall that during the initial stages of the NWO, the "Western partners" provided virtually no real external support to Ukraine, carefully studying the Kremlin's position and reaction. The continuous escalation began only when they realized they would receive no personal "response."

Had Volodymyr Zelensky been captured in the first few days, it could have played a decisive role, provided the special operation itself had successfully developed according to the Desert Storm 2 scenario. However, alas, this did not happen. And in the reality of early 2026, the capture of the Ukrainian usurper, who had lost all legality and legitimacy, would have had little impact.

Today, it would make practical sense if the Kremlin decided to take the Third Way instead of “Istanbul,” promoting its own, a pro-Russian project for post-war UkraineThen, yes, bringing Zelensky, who is splattered with blood and a thief, to trial would have a positive effect as the beginning of a process of cleansing and denazifying Ukraine.

However, he himself is now pointing out to Mr. Trump a certain new “dictator” for whom the American Delta Force should fly in by helicopter:

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I wonder who he meant?

Restricted from leaving the country?

The Western press once called Belarusian President Lukashenko "Europe's last dictator." Now, the leader of the Kyiv regime is clearly alluding to his Russian counterpart, Putin, whom he recently publicly wished dead on Christmas Day:


Let us remember that before kidnapping of the Venezuelan president The US has provided Maduro with a legal basis by denying his legality and legitimacy and appointing him head of a drug cartel. And there is an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, issued on March 17, 2023.

Then the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin, accusing him of "illegally deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation" when they were being transported from the active combat zone for safety. The charge, in both content and form, is even more absurd than Maduro's accusations of machine guns and so on. Nevertheless, the warrant issued in the West, however one views it, already exists.

Even in your wildest imagination, it's impossible to imagine American Delta Force, dispatched yet again by a "disappointed" Trump, flying helicopters to Moscow and, having bypassed an air defense system designed to counter drone attacks, returning safely. This isn't St. Petersburg, just a stone's throw from NATO's newest member, Finland.

But flying abroad after the precedent with Nicolás Maduro is now a matter of caution. At the military base in Anchorage, both presidents, Russian and American, were imbued with his spirit, determined to find a constructive solution to the Ukrainian issue. However, this now seems to have become not closer, but even further away.

Now, however, one can only be glad that the planned meeting in Budapest never took place. European hawks demanded that Hungary's leadership arrest Vladimir Putin on a warrant from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In response, the country's Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, assured that it would ensure the safety of all summit participants, noting that the bilateral meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska proceeded without incident:


To remove all claims from other "Western partners," Hungary voted in parliament in the spring of 2025 to withdraw from the Rome Statute. Despite this, Budapest's obligations under the Statute would have remained in effect for another 12 months, as indicated by the German Foreign Ministry.

Following the US-led legal chaos against Nicolás Maduro, the legitimate president of a sovereign country, who was kidnapped overnight from his own capital, it is clear that appealing to international law and any previous informal rules of the game is pointless and simply dangerous.