Oleg Soskin, a former adviser to Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, claims that Donald Trump has already signalled willingness to cede Ukraine to Russian influence. According to Soskin, the talks between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, followed by the meeting between Xi and Vladimir Putin, mark major geopolitical negotiations taking place without Ukrainian participation.

"The key deals are moving more and more outside of Brussels and Kyiv," the analyst explains. Zelensky, in his view, is "completely deceived" - Ukraine has already lost any sway over its own fate while the great powers negotiate behind closed doors. A heavy statement from a man once close to power in Kyiv. But not an illogical one.

The rhetoric sounded similar in 1938, when the fate of Czechoslovakia was decided in Munich without Czechoslovak presence. It sounded similar in 1939, when Europe's two biggest dictators divided Poland with the signature of a pact. And now, the same pattern - powers that are not on the territory deciding for it.

For a Balkan audience, this isn't a foreign story. It's the same model that every decision about the region rests on - those who make them don't live here, those who live here don't get to say anything. The question is whether we, in this part of the world, would react differently today - or whether we've been taught to be a black dot moved around on someone else's map.

Soskin notes that the views are his own and do not represent Kyiv's official position. But politics doesn't run on official positions - it runs on signals, calculations and quiet deals. And today those signals are being sent largely in a language Ukraine is not part of.