To be fair, when your survival depends on the military spending of someone else, the lines between "alliance" and "vasalism" starts to blur. It will (understandably) take some balls for Zelensky to ever refuse anything from Biden in the short term ; and in the long term, US will likely not refrain from using the "remember when we saved you from Putin" card (we've heard this in France for, what 50 years ?)
I'm pretty sure Churchill and De Gaulle were called "pupets of the USA" at some point, and they seem to have gone on _fine_.
That being said, it would be foolish from the US to not "destroy the Russian army for less than 5% of its defense budget, without loosing any soldier".
I agree, and of course I expect the US to use their "hey remember that time" card a few times, and I'm sure Ukraine itself (not just Zelenskyy) expects the same.
And for context, the US helping Ukraine to this extent pretty immediately means the US is loved in Ukraine, and the country will be pretty happy to follow the US in whatever for quite a while.
"Puppet" has other implications, though. A puppet, in its most literal form, is an empty face and body where you put your hand; it does your every move, everything you exactly want it to.
The implications of calling Zelenskyy the US's puppet are appalling. It implies Ukraine didn't choose him, rather that the US placed him. It implies Ukraine has no agency, but is just the "United State Border Office for Russia". It implies that Ukraine's biggest problems are whatever the US is concerned about; rather than what currently threatens its existence.
I'm tired tired tired of americans thinking they're so god-damn important in the world, that every other nation is a "puppet state". And they always say it with disdain at their own administration, as if that makes it okay. Not to say the US hasn't had puppet regimes installed, but fuck, it's seriously egocentric.
Get this shit out of HN and back to RT, please. The US is not the center of Europe, and Ukraine is its own country.