Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met at Trump Tower in New York City, the United States, on September 27, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Ukraine congratulates Donald Trump Kyiv leadership puts on a brave show ahead of his US election win on Wednesday morning Republican victory seen as a bad outcome for the country in terms of military assistance and potentially territorial integrity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was one of the first leaders to congratulate Trump. declare victory at the presidential palace election Early Wednesday morning. NBC News then elected him president-elect, putting him on the path to becoming the 47th president.th America’s leaders.
Post on XZelensky praised Trump’s “impressive election victory” and said he was optimistic that Trump and the former US president, who has threatened to quickly cut funding to Ukraine if re-elected, can work together to achieve peace in Ukraine. .
“I applaud President Trump for his commitment to ‘peace through strength’ in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can truly promote a just peace in Ukraine. I hope we can put it into action together,” Zelensky commented road.
The Republicans are likely to make a sweeping victory, winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. This would make it easier for a Republican administration to block future military funding to Ukraine.
Trump has previously boasted that if elected he could “end the war” within 24 hours and suggested he would stop funding Ukraine to force a negotiated settlement with Russia. Analysts say Ukraine may be forced to make a “bad peace” with its powerful neighbor and may be forced to give up nearly 20% of its territory in the south and east currently occupied by Russian forces.
Ukraine relies heavily on international partners for military, financial and humanitarian aid to allow it to continue to function as a country and fight Russia after nearly three years of war. The U.S. election and the future of funding and support are seen as a make-or-break moment for Kyiv.
Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukraine looked forward to “entering an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership” and that Kyiv “continues to receive strong bipartisan support for Ukraine from the United States.”
Before the vote, a senior Ukrainian official told CNBC that Republicans could stop U.S. funding to Ukraine, which would be “extremely detrimental to Ukraine.” Although Kyiv has “own views on different candidates,” it hopes to rely on U.S. support until it achieves Victory and a “just peace.”
Trump opposes more aid
On July 16, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a joint press conference after their summit in Helsinki, Finland.
Chris McGrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Ahead of the Nov. 5 vote, the Trump administration and hard-line Republicans were widely expected to become more hostile to providing more funds to Ukraine. Trump’s running mate Vance has explicitly opposed further aid to Kiev, arguing that the United States should encourage Kiev to reach a peace agreement with Russia and that Ukraine should be prepared to cede land to Moscow.
Matthew Saville, director of military science at the Royal United Services Institute defense think tank, said Trump’s victory created considerable uncertainty for Ukraine and its other international partners.
“President Zelensky has congratulated Trump, no doubt hoping that Trump would want to be seen as a ‘winner,’ meaning he would fully support Ukraine. But he is skeptical of a deal — which could be quick Desire for a deal has not materialized, which bodes well for continued U.S. support, especially given that Trump will now have to contend with Congress, but many Republicans are deeply skeptical of Ukraine and the U.S. is generally concerned about China. ”
Saville continued in emailed comments that Russia would see a possible Trump victory as “an incentive to continue to exert its numerical superiority. At the same time, Europe and NATO as an institution should consider where it can take on more responsibility, and President Biden may choose to use more than $5 billion in remaining available funds to support Ukraine under the President’s divestment authority in the final months of his term.”
During a heated presidential debate with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris in September, Trump was asked multiple times whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war or whether a victory in Kyiv would be in the best interests of the United States.
He responded by insisting that he wanted the war to stop To save lives, he will seek to negotiate a deal with Russia. He did not say how the deal would be reached or whether Ukraine would cede the territory it occupies to Russia – a concession that Kiev has previously refused to make.
Trump also claimed that if he had been in power in 2022, the war would not have broken out and that Russian President Vladimir Putin “would be sitting in Moscow and he would not have lost 300,000 men and women in the war.”
The exact number of war casualties is unclear because neither Russia nor Ukraine has released such sensitive information, but U.S. intelligence agencies estimated in December that there were about 315,000 Russian troops Killed or wounded in waruntil that point in time.
