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As CBS News reported on Wednesday, special US envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg where the Russian leader released 74-year-old American citizen Stephen Hubbard who had been wrongly detained for four years by Russia. Witkoff then thanked Putin for releasing Hubbard saying, “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you, and I thank you again.” As it turned out, an American was coming home thanks to Witkoff’s efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a swipe at the special US envoy, Steve Witkoff, in an interview with ABC News on Friday, as he implored Washington to provide his country with more military aid. The President also claimed that Ukraine was willing to freeze conflict on the front lines and negotiate an end to the war “as quickly as possible.” Zelensky said he was a “normal person” and “just human” and suggested that he was not as “big of a humanitarian” as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky went on to talk about gratitude. “Maybe somebody feels that I have to be grateful each second. I can’t. When somebody wants to thank me several times, I feel that something is strange with these people. They want to be better than they are. So it’s enough to be grateful once, two times, three times. It’s enough. Be yourself. Be honest.” Read that again. The President of Ukraine, a country that has relied on the financial, military and intelligence aid of the United States for years, called out the special envoy that the President sent to bring home an American wrongly detained by Russia for demands that Zelenskiy be grateful.
The President of a country who has for years relied on the US for financial, military and intelligence support to carry out its battles mocks the man chosen by Trump to negotiate the release of an American citizen and lectures the US as to how many times Ukrainians should thank it. At the same time, he again accused the US of providing “not supportive” aid and of not providing sufficient numbers of Patriot air-defense interceptors. According to ABC News, Zelensky complained in the same interview that the US has only provided 24 Patriot interceptors in the last three months. Witkoff had just the day before embraced Zelensky in Oslo.
For years, CDM has been reporting on the governance of Volodymyr Zelensky as well as the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the security services. We published video of the SBU raid on a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery with chainsaws and the beating of priests in October 2025. In March 2026, CDM reported with Tsarizm on two monks from the Peschansk Monastery in Izium – Archimandrite Leontiy and Hieromonk Arseniy – who were taken away by the SBU and the military recruitment officers, according to reports by the Union of Orthodox Journalists. In July CDM’s L Todd Wood wrote that while Ukraine’s leader claimed that he was protecting Christianity after the fire at the famous Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, in reality, Orthodox priests continue to be beaten and churches closed across the country.
It is not only CDM reporting on this issue. In October 2025, UN human rights experts expressed serious concern at reports of ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). In particular, they were concerned by a law that allows the dissolution of religious organizations tied to the Russian Orthodox Church, which they said does not fit international standards on freedom of religion.
When the Ukrainian leader reaches for moral high ground between himself and the special envoy for Trump sent to bring an American citizen home from Russia, he can expect the reports of priests being attacked by security service of the leader to be brought up by many.
The destruction of Christianity is real and in your face in Ukraine.
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