Volodymyr Zelensky is the president of Ukraine. John Kiriakou says he was directed not to publicly discuss Zelensky’s corruption, describing an unwritten rule that critics of Ukraine could work with certain circles only if they stayed quiet on the subject.[1] He claims Zelensky personally calls Ukrainian billionaires he publicly opposes to solicit large sums of money, predicting the recipients then relocate their wealth to places like London, Dubai, or Geneva.[2]
The White House confrontation
Kiriakou says the public dressing-down of Zelensky by Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office was “clearly set up in advance” — planned to embarrass and humiliate Zelensky in front of the press corps — and alarmed other European leaders about the reliability of the U.S. as an ally.[3][4] He says Trump deliberately kept the press in the room for the confrontation, breaking with the normal practice of escorting reporters out before substantive discussion begins: “Trump went after Zelensky with the media there. He did it on purpose.”[5]
Kiriakou, who draws on experience going back to the 1980s at the CIA and three years at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he had never before seen a vice president speak up in a diplomatic meeting the way Vance did during the confrontation — the normal role of the vice president in such settings, he says, is to sit quietly and nod.[6]