Zelensky has every reason to lose his cool. And yet, he seems to be the only player in this crisis keeping his eye on the ball. In response to President Biden’s gaffe about how a “minor incursion” into Ukraine would probably elicit a more restrained response from America and NATO, Zelensky tweeted: “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones.”

On Friday, he chastised Western powers, including the U.S., for fomenting panic by talking about how a devastating war is now imminent and perhaps inevitable. “These signals have come even from respected world leaders, who speak openly and with undiplomatic language. They say simply ‘tomorrow there will be war.’ This is panic,” he said. Zelensky reportedly delivered this message to Biden directly.

Sure, Russian officials insist war is the furthest thing from their minds. Putin and his subalterns claim this is a defensive deployment. At the U.N. on Monday, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused America of “whipping up tensions and provoking escalation,” repeating that the last thing Russia wants is war. “You are almost pulling for this,” he said to the American ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “You want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality.”