The sun rises behind the US Capitol building in Washington, DC. Photo: EPA-EFE / ALLISON DINNER
Ukrainians braced themselves for an unpredictable new phase of its almost three-year war with Russia on Monday as Donald Trump prepared for his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States in Washington, DC.
Ending the war as quickly as possible was a key campaign pledge for Trump, who while running for election repeatedly claimed that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. Any hope among Ukrainians for a swift resolution to the almost three-year conflict has been overshadowed by fears for what any Trump-sanctioned peace deal would mean for Kyiv, however.
Despite giving himself a more realistic timeline of six months to end the war in recent speeches, Trump continues to view reaching a peace deal quickly as priority, with CNN reporting on Sunday that Trump sought to hold a phone call with Vladimir Putin in the “days” immediately after taking office, with a view to organising in-person talks on ending the war “in the coming months”.
Earlier this month, the Kremlin said that Putin was “open” to meeting Trump without preconditions, but that no specific arrangements had yet been made. Both Switzerland and Serbia have volunteered to host a summit between the two leaders.
In December, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris to discuss ending the war — though most analysts believe the Trump team favours a peace deal in which Ukraine agrees to cede territory currently occupied by Russian forces to Moscow, or approximately 20% of sovereign Ukrainian territory.
Despite outgoing US President Joe Biden’s last minute “surge” of military aid for Ukraine in the weeks before his term ended, Time magazine revealed on Sunday that restoring all Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory to Kyiv was “never among” the Biden administration’s objectives in the region, believing an outright victory on the battlefield to be “beyond Ukraine’s ability, even with robust help from the West”.
While Zelensky has joined many of his fellow world leaders in a calculated campaign of flattery towards Trump, praising his “peace through strength” approach and saying that a Trump administration would be likely to end the war “sooner” than would be the case under the Democrats, the outlook for Ukraine with Trump in the White House is even bleaker than it was beforehand, with a growing acceptance in Kyiv that any resolution to the war will now involve significant concessions to Russia.
