US ATM will jam and stop spitting out billions?
That certainly might happen. If it does, it could lead to a whole cascade of negative events for Ukraine's government.
Let's look at Putin for a second. He's already had his "worst year". List:
1) He misjudged what it would take to rapidly collapse Ukraine.
2) He got us all sanctioned.
3) A bunch of our money was stolen, money that was stashed away for a rainy day.
4) Tens of thousands of young men have died.
5) You could argue all this was more or less directly his fault.
How's he feeling? Why, quite wonderful. Whether it is based on polling or his gleaming face at the St. Petersburg economic forum. Putin has gazed into the abyss, and he's still around to tell the story. Hard to imagine, quite honestly, what has to happen for Putin to experience another such panic as described above. In essence, this was largely the purpose of the West's shock and awe response. Somehow Putin survived.
Now let's look at Zelensky's year:
1) He is widely considered a living symbol of Ukrainian resilience.
2) World leaders fly to Kiev to take selfies with him.
3) Despite all odds, he has saved Ukraine's economy from collapse, by rallying aid from around the world, using his superb communication skills.
4) Internally, he has managed to steel his population for a long fight, by taking masterful control of the information domain.
5) Finally, he has lived to see the moment his own "D-Day" was launched. Anxious now, to see it work.
So you see, Zelensky has been rather untested in the "daily eating sh!t" discipline, in which Putin is quite trained. If his farcical D-Day doesn't work out, and the West suddenly becomes much less helpful, there will be hell to pay. Already things are coming apart at the seems internally (yesterday Klitschko was saying Zelensky is trying to oust him as mayor of Kiev).
Everyone has been forced to keep their mouth shut around Zelensky for the better part of a year. Now, some of the shine is starting to come off. Really, through no fault of his own.