Ukrainian officials on Wednesday sought to put on a brave face and position themselves as supporters of Donald Trump who they portrayed as the leader who could forge peace with Russia.
But hiding behind the veil of support was “a lot of anxiety” about the US’s continued support for Kyiv once the new president took office, said a former minister.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on his “impressive election victory” even before the electoral count was tallied. The Ukrainian leader expressed hope that the Republican would play an important role in ending the war.
“We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership,” Zelenskyy said. “This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer.”
He recalled a September meeting with Trump in New York, where they discussed efforts to end Russia’s military aggression, including the Ukrainian leader’s “victory plan”, which calls for an increase in military support from Washington that will be a tough sell to the Trump administration.
Trump, who was impeached in 2019 for pressuring Zelenskyy to open criminal probes into Joe Biden and his son Hunter over their business dealings in Ukraine, has blamed the Ukrainian president for starting the war. Trump has also claimed that he would end the conflict “within 24 hours” after taking office.
“I know Zelenskyy very well, and I know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin very well, even better,” Trump told Fox News in July. “I would tell Zelenskyy, no more. You got to make a deal,” he said, adding that he would turn to Putin and threaten to give Kyiv “a lot” more aid in order to broker an agreement.
Zelenskyy’s response to Trump’s re-election was echoed by senior politicians in Kyiv who believe the Republican is capable of reinvigorating the west’s approach to Russia’s war.
“Feeling OK, lots of challenges but definitely new dynamics coming,” David Arakhamia, head of Zelenskyy’s parliamentary group told the Financial Times.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European integration, echoed that sentiment, saying that “Trump can definitely organise” more political momentum in Kyiv’s favour.
Oleksandr Merezhko, another MP in Zelenskyy’s party, who chairs the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about Trump. “He wants to be a successful president and success means that Ukraine should become for him a success story, not a story of failure,” he said.
The Kremlin attempted to play down widespread glee in Moscow at Trump’s victory and implied that Putin did not plan to congratulate the president-elect.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, said the Russian president was open to dialogue but that the US was an “unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in a war against Russia”. Peskov also expressed scepticism that Trump could end the war as soon as he took office. “You can’t end the Ukraine conflict overnight,” Peskov said.
Putin had said in September that he wanted Harris to win the election in an apparent attempt to shield Trump from Russia’s politically toxic support.
But the Kremlin’s public scepticism belied comments from several Russian officials reflecting widespread hopes that Trump could roll back western sanctions and pressure Kyiv to agree peace terms favourable to Moscow.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said that “Trump has one useful quality for us: he’s a businessman to the bone, he has a deathly hatred of spending money on hangers-on and freeloaders”, among which he counted Ukraine. “The issue is how much Trump will be forced to spend on the war. He’s stubborn, but the system is stronger than him.”
Some senior Russian figures implied rapprochement with the US was possible under Trump.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, told state newswire RIA Novosti that Trump’s victory opened up a chance for “a more constructive approach on the Ukraine conflict from the Republicans”.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Kremlin-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, expected that Trump’s victory could lead to détente between Washington and Moscow. Dmitriev has previously been involved in back-channel efforts to strengthen Russia’s ties with the Trump world, according to the US Department of Justice.
“Despite a large-scale disinformation campaign directed against them, Trump and his team demonstrated unique strength and resilience,” Dmitriev said. “This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.”
Heavily reliant on US military, financial, and diplomatic support, Ukrainians have spent the past few months closely following the US election campaign. Many had voiced support for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris out of concern that Trump might force Kyiv’s capitulation.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, the Biden administration has given more than $64bn in security assistance to Ukraine, plus additional financial and humanitarian aid adding up to $174bn. Ukrainian forces on the eastern front are enduring relentless Russian attacks, which have led to the biggest and fastest territorial gains by their adversary since 2022.
A Ukrainian defence official said that many people in the country’s military “are afraid [US] assistance will stop and we’ll lose Donbas [in eastern Ukraine] at least”.
“For us, [US] support means life or death,” said a Ukrainian defence adviser. “We need to convince Trump to be with us.”
A Ukrainian military adviser said he was “more pessimistic” than the political leaders expressing support for Trump. “But some people think that his out-of-the-box approach will be actually the only one capable of some result,” he added.
An adviser to the Ukrainian government said he feared that Trump “may push the whole world into the era of chaos”.
“It might be a moment of truth for Europe, the UK to step up and be the adults in the room. But they may not be up to that task.”
Serhiy Fursa, a Ukrainian political analyst, said the return of Trump meant “the world once again turned the wrong way”.
“Putin celebrates, Orban celebrates, [Elon] Musk opens champagne. Today is a holiday for a lot of very unpleasant people,” he said.
Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in Berlin
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