There is a scene in the television show Servant of the People, when a fictional Ukrainian leader confronts his country’s western backers. “I want to thank the head of the IMF and its board of directors for time wasted on us, and for a very meaningful conversation,” says the president, played by Volodymyr Zelensky. “Feeling deep gratitude I want to say: Stick your head in your ass!”
Fiction has turned to fact. Zelensky, elected president in 2019, is now the one defying his western partners, led by Washington, over their ever more insistent warnings of a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Last month, he rebuked President Joe Biden for a gaffe about how a “minor incursion” by Russian forces might elicit a less severe western response. Then Kyiv berated Washington for withdrawing some US diplomats and their families. Last week, Zelensky took issue with repeated US warnings about an imminent Russian invasion, saying they could spread panic and serve Vladimir Putin’s aims of weakening the economy and destabilising the country.