Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest display of opportunism found him contending “the United States knows what to do next” after the capture of a dictator.
Where once President Donald Trump expressed optimism about ending the conflict between Ukraine and Russia expediently, negotiations have dragged on with key players failing to cede anything to each other. Saturday, Zelenskyy once again demonstrated his single-mindedness on the war with a quip suggesting the United States repeat its actions in Venezuela against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked about U.S. strikes in the South American country that were cover for the arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, transported to New York City and indicted on narcoterrorism charges and others, Zelenskyy said, “Regarding Venezuela, how should we respond to this? Well, what can I say is, if you can do that with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next.”
President Zelenskyy on Maduro:
What can I say here? If this can be done to dictators, like that, then the United States of America know what they should do next. pic.twitter.com/VmEuTwTBnB
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) January 3, 2026
The remark, made in the wake of Zelenskyy’s latest stateside visit to meet with Trump, presented yet another divide between the feuding nations as Russia expressed adamant opposition to seeing the people of key ally Venezuela unburdened by the dictatorial Maduro regime.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for the release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, insisting the dictator was the “legitimately elected president of a sovereign country.”
“This morning, the United States carried out an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This causes deep concern and condemnation,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The pretexts cited to justify such actions are unfounded. Ideologized hostility has prevailed over practical pragmatism and over a willingness to build relations based on trust and predictability.”
With the four-year anniversary of the war with Ukraine less than two months away, the ministry went on to claim, “We proceed from the understanding that all parties who may have claims against one another should seek solutions through dialogue-based approaches. We are ready to support them in this.”
Meanwhile, as Trump held a press conference on Operation Absolute Resolve, joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and others, he expressed his current feelings toward Putin.
“I’m not thrilled with Putin. He’s killing too many people,” voiced the commander-in-chief who’d successfully handled eight separate peace negotiations in the first year of his second administration.
“We’re losing 25-, 30,000 human beings. They come from two places that are very far away,” said Trump, who relayed that he hadn’t discussed the capture of Maduro with Putin as of Saturday morning. “So, I’m not happy about it. I thought that would be something that would get solved.”
As for whether or not another nation could meet a similar fate to Venezuela, the president suggested during the press conference that Cuba, “an interesting case,” could be “something we’ll end up talking about…”
Likewise, Rubio said in part, “If I lived in Havana, in the government, I would be concerned.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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