{"id":1971,"date":"2025-06-03T05:34:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T09:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2025-06-03T06:34:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T10:34:28","slug":"disarmament-ukrainian-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv-ukrtaz\/2025\/06\/03\/disarmament-ukrainian-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Disarmament, Ukrainian-style"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recall that Ukraine disarmed in 1994 in exchange for security assurances<\/a> by Russia, the US, and the UK, assurances that ultimately weren’t kept. By reportedly damaging about a third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers, Sunday’s Operation Spider’s Web<\/a> (\u041f\u0430\u0432\u0443\u0442\u0438\u043d\u0430) began the process of disarming Russia. (Follow-up analyses can be read here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memes circulating about the event — such as Zelensky showing Trump the hand of cards he actually had up his sleeve, or asking Trump and Vance (or Big and Little TACO, as some are calling them) for a “thank you” — can easily be found. (Here’s a good sample<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roman Sheremeta<\/a>, writing on Facebook, notes insightfully about why Ukraine disclosed the information as rapidly as it did:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By revealing how the operation was executed \u2014 including the use of concealed drones inside decoy trucks driven across 5,000 kilometers of russian territory \u2014 Ukraine isn\u2019t just celebrating a tactical success. It\u2019s imposing a psychological and economic cost on russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, every russian cargo truck becomes a potential threat. Every driver is suspect. As a result, russian authorities will be forced to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n