On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his “impressive election victory,” but behind the scenes, Ukrainian officials are really feeling “a lot of anxiety,” according to a report from Financial Times.
Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine, although he never laid out a plan to reach that goal. His running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, has been more explicit, saying he favors a deal to end the war that would freeze the current battle lines and guarantee Ukrainian neutrality and independence but still allow some sort of US military assistance for Ukraine.
An unnamed Ukrainian defense official told FT that many people in the Ukrainian military are “afraid” that a Trump victory means US aid will stop and “we’ll lose Donbas at least.”
Another Ukrainian official said, “For us, [US] support means life or death. We need to convince Trump to be with us.”
Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned to continue the proxy war, although Zelensky has signaled that he expected the conflict to wind down in 2025 no matter who won. He has been pushing his so-called “victory plan,” which calls for NATO to support long-range strikes in Russia, among other escalations.
Zelensky said on Wednesday that when he spoke with Trump in September, they “discussed in detail the Ukraine-US strategic partnership, the Victory Plan, and ways to put an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
During his time in the White House, Trump escalated US involvement in Ukraine by providing Javelin anti-tank missiles, which parked the first US provision of “lethal aid” to Ukraine. Trump later briefly delayed a shipment of military aid to Ukraine, which was used by the House to impeach him over allegations he was seeking a “quid pro quo” to get Zelensky to investigate Biden’s involvement in Ukraine, a claim the Ukrainian leader has always denied.
