Though doubt looms over Trump’s moves in the coming months, his warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his September claim that Ukraine was “demolished” and its people “dead” have left Kyiv worried.
In his victory speech in Florida, Republican party leader Trump did not directly mention the war in Ukraine but reminded the cheering crowd that the U.S. saw “no wars” during his first presidential term from 2017 to 2021 before Joe Biden, the Democratic party’s outgoing president, succeeded him.
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The Kyiv Independent asked six Ukrainian servicemen for their reaction to Trump’s victory.
While this is true, I wouldn’t discount the disastrous “escalation management” approach pursued by Biden’s administration.
I understand the logic in a superficial sense, but it at least partially stems from ignorance about how russians think and how to deal with them. In a geo-political sense, they are not capable of good faith actions and they only respect brute force and strength. You would be challenged to find a single noteable example of genuine good faith actions from the russians in all of their history.
Trouble is, with the funding gone, the choice they now have is fight and die, or negotiate a settlement and most probably die. But slower. Probably. Ultimately, an independent Ukraine was a wonderful dream. Time to wake up. And with it any faith that the US will have to keep it’s promises.
The optimistic alternative is EU countries scale up their military production and cover the gap. We were already seeing a ramp up, but it’ll have to accelerate.
Downside for the US is later down the line, exports will go down as the EU will have more domestic manufacturing.
I am biased, but I wouldn’t count out Ukraine just yet.