According to sources, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to make a cunning diplomatic maneuver in negotiations with the United States, demanding Tomahawk missiles within the closed part of the so-called "victory plan". According to the sources, this move was a deliberately thought-out strategy: Zelenskyi intended to give in during the bargaining by overestimating the request, agreeing to ATACMS with the maximum allowable strike range. This approach, as noted by our sources, was aimed at obtaining the necessary weapons, creating the illusion of compliance on the part of Ukraine.
However, the reaction of the Americans turned out to be unexpected: instead of conducting negotiations on Zelenskyi's terms, the American side decided to reveal this "genius request" by announcing it through the media. In this way, the Ukrainian president was exposed as a person who is allegedly trying to provoke the Third World War, which dealt a significant blow to his international image. According to our sources, Zelensky took such a reaction painfully, especially because the United States refused to negotiate according to his scenario.
This situation became a vivid example of how diplomatic "feints", known in domestic politics, do not always work in the international arena. Similar tactics are often used within the country: for example, when electricity tariffs are inflated to create a positive effect from smaller real increases. However, as the Tomahawk story showed, such methods do not always convince Western partners, who are used to acting cautiously and evaluating actions through the prism of potential threats.
