By Steven Flagg
Guest Column
As dawn breaks on a cold, cloudy morning in January, a small crowd has gathered in Independence Square in central Kyiv. The sun has not shined for days, and the wind is brutally blowing the spitting snow as the crowd shivers to stay warm. It was just a few days ago that the world celebrated the arrival of 2028.
Russian soldiers have been present for hours establishing a security perimeter to protect Putin and a small group of his advisors. A hastily built gallows stands in the middle of the square. On it is a lone figure with a noose around their neck, coatless, and clothed in black from head to toe. He has defiantly declined a hood so Putin and his minions would see the last measure of his defiance. With his trademark beard and trim, rugged appearance he is easily identified as Volodymyr Zelenskyy the former president of Ukraine. For the past year he has been the leader of Onip, the Ukrainian resistance movement. Onip was formed by Zelenskyy and his rabid followers after Russia invaded and quickly conquered a battered and exhausted Ukraine that was just beginning to rebuild.
In the fall of 2025, Ukraine having been bludgeoned, bloodied and abandoned by America had no other option but to capitulate to President Trump’s demands for peace and signed a treaty giving Russia full control over 30 percent of Ukrainian territory. The agreement had no security guarantees and prohibited Ukraine from ever joining NATO. The treaty did provide for a small number of French, Polish, and British soldiers tasked with monitoring negotiated border crossings and patrolling the new border.
In December 2026 after several Russian provocations and accusations, Putin again invaded Ukraine. NATO, now without its largest military partner as America had withdrawn in early 2026 and undermined by the constant bickering of its European members, was paralyzed by the swiftness of the brazen attack. Peace keeping troops, so few in numbers, were easily surrounded and taken hostage with no significant injuries. Lightly armed they decided surrender was better than certain death.
Zelenskyy with many of his military advisors fled Kyiv to the Ukrainian countryside. Once there they formed Oпір, gathered arms and supporters, and started a guerilla campaign to harass the Russian invaders. They gallantly continued persistent and deadly raids for months. Money corrupted a trusted advisor and while traveling to another command center a Russian Spetsnaz team captured Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy was the heart of Ukraine, and his leadership was the last glimmer of hope. Oпір continued operations for a few more months but eventually Russia’s brutal treatment of Ukrainians smashed all but isolated incidents of terrorism.
Russia was now on the borders of the European Union with a weakened NATO and a rebuilt and reamed military. After Putin begins threatening and bullying Estonia for access to Tallinn port facilities, an alarmed President Vance calls for increases in defense spending and begins negotiations with NATO and the European Union to regain its membership. Vance who refuses to publicly acknowledge his role in the disaster is now isolated politically after the death of Donald Trump and the loss of Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections.
You say it will never happen. It can if we fail to stand on guard! Let us all work to keep it fiction.