You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.

My name's Ryan Evans. I'm the founder of War on the Rocks. Before we go into the show,

I have a few things I want to say. Last week, I criticized President Zelensky of Ukraine on social media for getting into

an argument at the White House.

A recent episode of this podcast recorded the day before that ill-fated meeting ended

up being an unintended preview of what happened.

As listeners will remember, I noted that Zelensky was only hurting Ukraine by publicly

picking fights with Trump,

who reacts predictably and often explosively. On social media, many people assume this was

a defense of the Trump administration and its policy on Ukraine, or as a statement of approval

of how the president and vice president treated Zelensky. I said nothing to indicate that. What I did

is focused on what the President of Ukraine

chose to do in a very high-stakes meeting with a Mercurial U.S. president. As anyone who listens

to this show should understand, I want Ukraine to win. When I criticize Ukrainian leadership,

as we often do on this show, for example on mobilization policy, it is with the aim of helping them

get to a place where they can prevail. But people could be quite sensitive when Zelensky

is the topic of criticism, as many of us have experienced before. This moment, in the immediate

aftermath of the Oval Office meeting, was also fresh and raw, and I was direct and unvarnished.

I could have ordered my posts more gently, and perhaps I should have, but I was direct and unvarnished. I could have worded my posts more gently, and perhaps

I should have, but I too was feeling emotional. I was angry that Zelensky faltered on something

that was not only predictable, but predicted, as we discussed in this episode, by others like me

who want to see Russia defeated. The situation on social media and response to my post became

...