Key Points and Summary – Following a brutal Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv that killed over a dozen civilians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made his most forceful call yet: for “regime change” in Moscow.
-Arguing that “peace without strength is impossible,” Zelenskyy urged Western partners to use all available tools, including the confiscation of Russian assets, to compel Moscow to negotiate.
-The call for Putin’s ouster is a dramatic escalation in rhetoric and raises new questions about the West’s ultimate endgame, especially as President Trump’s own war of words with the Kremlin intensifies.
Putin Must Go: Is Regime Change in Russia Now in the Cards?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to massive Russian strikes against Kyiv on Wednesday night by calling on allies to pursue “regime change” in Moscow.
After hundreds of Russian drones and missiles killed more than a dozen people in the Ukrainian capital, Zelenskyy argued that Russia continues to escalate despite growing calls for peace.
“That is why peace without strength is impossible,” Zelenskyy said. “But forcing Moscow to make peace, compelling them to come to a real negotiating table – all the tools needed for this are in the hands of our partners.”
Speaking at a conference in Helsinki, Finland, Zelenskyy also accused Moscow of being “mentally stuck in another century” and called for Russian assets to be confiscated globally.
“It’s time to confiscate the Russian assets, not just freeze them…to use them to serve peace, not war. We need to fully block Russia’s war machine, cut off its arms industry, limit its energy profits,” he said.
Putin Ousted: Can It Happen?
Regime change would be a hard sell for American voters and, in particular, Trump’s base.
But despite that, Trump has repeatedly signaled his determination to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible.
The U.S. president’s initial 50-day warning to Putin didn’t work, and his decision this week to shorten that deadline to ten days sparked a heated exchange between himself and Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev.
The former Russian president accused Trump of making a “step toward war.”
The idea of targeting Moscow itself, once unthinkable, has been floated behind closed doors. In mid-July, the Financial Times reported that Trump privately asked Zelenskyy whether Ukraine could strike Moscow if supplied with long-range weapons. Zelenskyy reportedly said yes, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later played down the exchange, insisting the president was merely “asking a question.”
Not Exactly Regime Change: Sanctions Look To Be in Play on Russia
For now, Trump appears to be focusing on economic pressure. He has threatened tariffs and sanctions against Russia’s trade partners, including India, and has voiced support for confiscating Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defense.
But Zelenskyy’s call for regime change raises questions about whether the U.S. might ultimately consider extreme measures to topple the Kremlin if economic and military pressure continue to yield no results.
The path to successful regime change, however, will present significant logistical challenges. Putin’s control over the Russian state remains extensive. Over the last two years, Putin has systematically purged dissenters within the security services, including more than 100 Federal Security Bureau (FSB) officers who were removed in 2023.
Any attempt to remove him would require not only a plan for Moscow itself but also a long-term strategy to secure a post-Putin government across the world’s largest country, while also managing the nuclear risk.
About the Author:
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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Tindmish
August 1, 2025 at 8:37 am
Putin NEEDS TO GO.
PUTIN HAS OUTLIVED HIS USEFULNESS.
In march 2018, a (far) different Putin was on stage, then, haranguing the west.
While showing off his six novel weapons to the west.
But today, today, today, Putin is not even a bit concerned about the massive massive copious amounts of blood shedded by his army.
Time for Putin to leave.
Rob Vettese
August 8, 2025 at 2:41 am
No it’s time for US take the lead for once and stop the war. Like seriously & genuinely stop this madness and waste of precious lives for nothing. All over power, greediness, great power games & competition, geopolitics, territory, energy & natural resources, economic dominance and military superiority.
Putin was wrong and absolutely shouldn’t have invaded Ukraine but his strategic calculus & decision for doing so was valid and understandable from a strategic military, security & economic POV and really it is/was technically an existential threat to Russias strategic and national sovereignty, security, border, economic, energy and geopolitical interests, survival & territorial integrity. Putin doesn’t want his people dying in Ukraine, we know this because of the lengths he goes through to avoid using “ethnic Russians” or younger conscripts and tries to focuses on recruiting from Russias minority communities in its peripheral regions using extreme measures with their coercive and aggressive recruitment tactics and micro mobilization like mass recruitment of convicts, foreigners, Pmc and or mercenaries, reservists, or at one time or another the offering potential fighters lucrative contracts, or enormous one time sign on bonuses, financial incentives & benefits, then some recruits are lured into the military or tricked into joining thru fictitious online ads for misrepresented employment opportunities or lying to signees about only being assigned to positions or jobs in rear areas far away the front lines, or some men forced and manipulated into signing contracts by deceptive means under threat of arrest, punishment, of violence, or under pressure, blackmail, intimidation, bullying or exploitation.
But moral of story is that the NATO alliance’s strategic military, geopolitical, operational & territorial expansionism is not necessary or practical. And is intentionally provocative, threatening, dangerous, irresponsible and reckless. What is their purpose? Reason? Propagative? Objective? And or their mission?! It Is absolutely meant to be actively, openly and overtly negative, antagonistic, aggressive, instigative malicious and hostile towards Russia and it wants to literally remove Russia from the European (mainly Germany) energy market and end the supply of cheaper Russian energy which is twofold in terms of weakening Russian economy and replaces them with more expensive alternative and conveniently US of American energy source (cost 3x more) and also in the longer run if they were to successfully incorporate Ukraine into NATO US corporations would control most of Ukraines gas and oil reserves and then sell it to European markets in place of Russia. Which Putin seen as an existential threat but inadvertently sped up that exact same process himself but by 10-30 years earlier than they could have if he didn’t invade and they did happen to join NATO also! But all the same Putin was always pragmatic and reasonable! It was every us president administration that hes dealt with that proved to be openly or covertly hostile towards Putin
Rob Vettese
August 8, 2025 at 2:58 am
P.s. And the want, need and desire to procure, mine, extract and exploit the essential & critically important Ukrainian natural resources, rare earth minerals and precious metals and more…especially those most in demand and Ukraine has enormously diverse abundance of it all. Ukraine possesses an estimated worth of trillions of dollars if it from cobalt, iron ore, phosphorus, gold, titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel. It holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe and significant deposits of lithium, making it a key player in the global supply chain for these and other vital resources. Not to mention it’s massively productive agricultural sector and maker fertile soil, too grain and fertilizer exporter, it’s massive production & industrial capacity and a lot more. On top of its huge oil basins and gas reserves!