By Anastasiia Malenko
kyiv (Reuters) – Ukraine appealed to Donald Trump’s tough-leader image on Wednesday in hopes of persuading the returning U.S. president not to abandon his cause for peace with Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, who has criticized the scale of U.S. military and financial support for kyiv and pledged to quickly end the war with Russia, without saying how.

“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach to world affairs,” Zelenskiy wrote. “This is exactly the principle that can practically bring a just peace in Ukraine closer. I hope we implement this together.

Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris raises questions about the future of U.S. support, which has so far been essential to Ukraine’s survival in the face of a much larger and better-equipped enemy.

Another difficult winter looms as Russian forces advance at the fastest pace since Ukraine first repelled its invasion on the outskirts of kyiv in early 2022. Ukraine, for its part, launched its first major incursion into Russian territory.

Any further attempts to end the war will likely involve peace talks, which have not taken place since the early months of the war.

Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Russia says the war cannot end until its so-called annexations are recognized. kyiv is demanding the return of all of its territory, a position that was widely supported by Western allies under the outgoing US administration of Joe Biden.

PEACE WITH “CERTAIN CONCESSIONS”

Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said Trump would likely push for quick negotiations to end the war, which could involve “some concessions” to Russia. But he added that he expected Washington would not completely capitulate to Moscow’s demands.

“I don’t think Trump would accept a peace solely on Russia’s terms, because that would look like a defeat for the United States, and his advisers understand that,” he told Reuters.

Ukraine’s international sovereign bonds rose nearly 2 cents in early European trading Wednesday, with investors saying the market expected a quicker end to the war now that Trump had won.

As Ukraine’s main military supporter, the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in arms and led international efforts to isolate Moscow diplomatically and through financial sanctions.

But Ukraine has also expressed frustration over delays in approving missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weapons by the Biden administration, whose fear of escalation has led to a piecemeal approach that, according to critics, gave Moscow time to recover from early failures.

Most recently, Ukraine called on the West to lift restrictions on the use of missiles to attack deep into Russia, which kyiv says is necessary to disrupt long-range Russian attacks.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a lawmaker from the opposition Holos party, said on Telegram that the transition until Trump takes office in January could be “a window of opportunity” for Biden to take “bold steps.”

MK Oleksandra Ustinova, who heads the parliamentary arms and munitions committee, said Trump’s picks for top diplomacy, security and defense posts would be key in determining the impact of the Trump administration on the war.

“These are the people who will decide the fate of Ukraine,” Ustinova told Reuters. “Right now, Mike Pompeo is most likely to be the secretary of defense, and he is a great friend of Ukraine. »

“Of course, everyone worries when a change happens. On the other hand, we understand that this was an expected outcome and we have always worked with both parties,” she added.

Residents of the capital kyiv, which regularly suffers drone and missile attacks from Russian forces and faces a winter of long power cuts, said they were eager to find out how Trump would end to war.

“I guess we are all waiting for the only thing: to stop the war, and since Trump promised to stop the war in just one day, we are all waiting for it,” said Oleksii Yarokha, 41.

“It could be today, tomorrow, we can wait until Friday. You’re the president, please do it, Mr. Trump.

Others wonder how Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the Republican has avoided sharply criticizing, might affect new U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

“On the one hand, you would think he would somehow influence” Putin, said Iryna Dvirna, 21. “On the other hand, they say they have very close ties, and maybe Trump won’t put as much pressure on Putin to do it.” change anything.

(Reporting by Yurii Kovalenko, Anastasiia Malenko and Max Hunder; writing by Tom Balmforth and Dan Peleschuk; editing by Mike Collett-White and Peter Graff)

Disclaimer: This report is automatically generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint assumes no responsibility for its content.