IS ZELENSKY UKRAINIAN

21 April2025

Is Zelensky Ukrainian? Some people think he is.

He couldn’t recognise the reasons why Russia intervened in Ukraine. That’s one thing - OK. But it’s hard to believe he is of the Ukrainian people, considering what he has put Ukraine and Ukrainians through in the last three years, especially when there were plenty of opportunities to stop the slaughter.

From his behaviour, you might think he is a Russian émigré of Jewish extraction - one who hates Russia because of the pogroms (violent riots) and the anti-Jewish discriminatory laws, going back to the assassination of Tsar Alexander II and Soviet-era "anti-Semitism" (which meant anti-Jewish sentiment, though today, ironically, “anti-Semitic” can mean simply that you are pro-Palestinian). Recently, Zelensky went so far as to say that he hates Putin.

When it came to emigrating - this would be from 1880 through to the 1990s (Aliyah) - many Jews who fled pogroms and state-sponsored injustice in Russia and Eastern Europe chose to flee to Israel and France. Many chose America. 

As a result, there are many Jewish immigrants and their descendants from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus in the United States today.

The Jewish religion, or Jewish people if you prefer, are remarkable in many ways. Perhaps the most important is how they are encouraged in knowledge management, producing a disproportionately high number of highly educated individuals. Those who emigrate tend to be intellectual, nationalist, and anti-establishment in their politics. 

Another strength is the trust and the organisational volunteer capability this makes possible within the community. 

Combine these qualities with a long history of oppression and exclusion, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia, and you get a group of people who emigrated to America from positions of hardship and worse, and end up playing key roles in foreign policy, academia, journalism, law, the sciences, chess, media, and politics. Quite remarkable.

One point worth noting is that many European Jews are secular - non-religious but Jewish, belief in liberal democratic values but not necessarily in God. Why? The Soviet state did its best to suppress religion, while to much the same effect, post-Enlightenment Europe moved from shall we call it collective wisdom based on authority, to individual reason in truth. And in this way, for safety, many Jews pursued integration and education over religious observance. That's european Jews.

Examples of notable Jewish émigrés:

• Zbigniew Brzezinski – Polish Catholic but part of the émigré intelligentsia

• Henry Kissinger – German-Jewish

• Victoria Nuland – Jewish, of Russian émigré descent

• Robert Kagan – Nuland’s husband, prominent neoconservative strategist.

See how these Ashkenazi Jews are known for their liberal values, history of hardship, their pragmatism, and they carry a suspicion of authority (Marx himself supported revolution), see where it comes from.

Their deep knowledge of Russia and Eastern Europe made them highly valuable to U.S. strategic thinking - especially during the Cold War, and again since Russia’s re-emergence as a super-power post-2000.

If you’ve read this far, that’s impressive. The argument has meandered along from the initial question "Is Zelinsky Ukrainian?", which may sound preposterous until you consider the facts of the persecution of the Jews, their emigration from Russia and Eastern Europe as a result, examine the exceptional qualities and character of the Jewish people, together with some notable examples, show how these abilities enabled them to successfully resettle in America, and find that many have played an important part formulating American geopolitics as a push eastwards and even overthrow of Russia. 

For anyone trying to make any sense of the driving forces behind this war in Ukraine, understand that:

- European elites fear Russia aims to rebuild an empire in Eastern and Central Europe or at least draw East Europe back into Russia's domain.

- America wants to remain global hegemon and saw a chance to weaken, maybe dismantle, Russia before confronting China....but alas.

- Russia seeks security: sovereignty, stable borders, no colourful foreign interference, and protection from encroaching armies or pointy missiles.

- Neoconservatives, often from Eastern European Jewish backgrounds, appear driven by a long-standing hostility toward Russia (and also Germany).

We are now in a position to conclude and answer the question.

CONCLUSION

Many leading neoconservatives have roots in Eastern Europe and Russia, where their families endured persecution under Tsarist and Soviet regimes and a German regime too. This historical trauma, combined with a deep ideological opposition to authoritarianism, has shaped a strong distrust of Russian power and motives. 

The strategic worldview of émigré Jewish people is often conditioned by this personal legacy and a commitment to liberal-democratic values, all leading to a particularly hawkish stance on Russia. 

This contrasts with the viewpoint of ukrainian people who when polled before this war wanted peace with Russia and voted Zelensky into office on his then-platform of restoring peace and justice in Ukraine and in its relations with Russia.

This is why Zelensky cannot be truly Ukrainian. He is, first and foremost, a Russian émigré Jew (born in Soviet Russia in 1975) as evinced in his hatred of Russians - a hatred that apparently fuels him - and callous treatment of the Ukrainian peoples.

It's a good story, reads like a 1990s thriller, just misses a romantic encounter and honeypot trap and ... perhaps we'll learn who the real Dr. Evil is in the next episode, if I live long enough to tell it.