In the streets of kyiv, pessimism is the key word on Wednesday. Because Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election risks damaging aid to Ukraine, whose army is already retreating, day after day, in the face of the Russians.
In recent months, the billionaire has insisted that he can impose peace in Ukraine in “24 hours”, without ever explaining how, but by decrying the extent of the aid paid to kyiv.
Walking in the cold streets of the Ukrainian capital, Natalia Pitchaktchi, a fifty-year-old displaced from the city of Mariupol, occupied by the Russians since spring 2022, is worried.
“I feel a kind of anxiety, because I don’t know what to expect,” she explains to AFP, her hands buried in her pockets. “It’s worrying.” “Something will change, there will be no more American support,” Natalia continues, referring to the tens of billions of dollars in military and financial aid that Washington and NATO members have provided since the start of the war. in 2022, allowing kyiv to continue fighting against a much more powerful invader.
Here, there is fear that the new president of the United States could impose a peace plan largely favorable to Russia. According to Western media, Mr. Trump would like to demilitarize but leave the area currently occupied by Moscow, or 20% of Ukrainian territory, under de facto Russian control. He would also be in favor of kyiv renouncing joining NATO, as demanded by the Kremlin.
“Impressive victory”
However, this goes against the “victory plan” wanted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the most important points of which are, however, an official invitation to join NATO, as well as the strengthening of military aid to lock the Ukrainian skies attacks Moscow and strike deep on Russian soil.
And kyiv still demands respect for its territorial integrity, excluding any concession of its territory, which therefore seems to contradict some of the ideas of the American billionaire.
While congratulating Donald Trump on his “impressive victory”, President Zelensky nevertheless said he hoped that this result would help Ukraine obtain “a just peace”. “I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach to global affairs,” he wrote on X.
At the end of October, a senior official from the Ukrainian presidency wanted to be reassuring to AFP, judging the Zelensky-Trump meeting in September in New York as “very good”. The Ukrainian president also described their meeting at the time as “formidable” on Wednesday.
A less defeatist position shared by Tetiana Podleska, a computer scientist interviewed by AFP in the streets of kyiv. “I don’t think it (this result, editor’s note) will change much,” she says laconicly. “It won’t change for the better, that’s for sure,” she concedes, “but for the worse, it’s unlikely.”
Olga Prikhodko, a young teacher in her thirties, also interviewed in the Ukrainian capital, believes that the American election must lead Ukraine to “reflect on the course of events” to ensure a victory against Russia “because our lives, the future of our country are in our hands.
The fact remains that the Ukrainian forces continue to retreat, Russia, despite significant losses, maintaining its superiority in men and weapons. And now, the West and kyiv are seeing North Korean reinforcements arrive for the Russian army.
The Russian army took some 500 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in October, a record since the first weeks of the conflict in March 2022, according to an AFP analysis of data from the American Institute for the Study of War ( ISW).
Olga therefore hopes that Ukraine’s allies will keep their promises to support the country until victory, even if the Ukrainian authorities continue to denounce the timidity of Western responses to Russian escalation. “I fear that support will decrease, but I hope that reason and democratic principles will prevail in the world,” she told AFP.
Igor Stryjeous, a worker in a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, is also “worried”, seeing in Trump a man potentially “dangerous” for Ukraine. His victory “worries everyone,” he said, “not just Ukraine, but the whole world.”
