Everytime the phrase 'red line' is used today, one is reminded that it has been a series of US Presidents that escalated the concept of red lines into an instrument of policy.

But it's also easy to forget that Ukraine's President Zelensky was presented with his own red lines memo way back in May 2019, by the Ukraine Crisis Media Center (a US & NATO-funded entity) which he seems to have been forced to stick to.

[https://uacrisis.org/en/71966-joint-appeal-of-civil-society-representatives]

Joint statement by civil society representatives on the first political steps of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky

As civil society activists, we present a list of “red lines not to be crossed”. Should the President cross these red lines, such actions will inevitably lead to political instability in our country and the deterioration of international relations:

Some claim (like Mike Benz) that this memo was in fact a veiled warning from the US State Department that if Zelensky crossed these red lines he might be deposed like Yanukovych was before him.

[See speaker 1 comments at:
https://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/the-joe-rogan-experience-01hp4c6gdxz064yk1cyc1qym1k/episode/2237-mike-benz-01je6vtt46htf4vg5w7az8fb4m]

The kind of pressure in May 2019 from Pravyi Sektor founder Dmitry Yaroch that threatened Zelensky with hanging from a tree if he betrays Ukraine.

The kind of pressure that just a couple of months later in July 2019 prevented the broadcasting of the Revealing Ukraine documentary:

[https://revealingukraine.com/]

TV channel 112 Ukraine has canceled its planned broadcast of Oliver Stone’s documentary ‘Revealing Ukraine’ after its office was attacked with a grenade launcher, a protest was held outside and employees received threats.

In any case, it does show the kind of pressure Zelensky was under right from the start of his presidency and begs the question:

Who exactly was Zelensky a servant of?