Ukraine’s jittery new reality: ‘Work with Trump and hope for the best’

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Like many Ukrainians pondering the results of the U.S. presidential election, Ivan Maschenko asserts that what happens in Ukraine matters for the world, and so it must matter to a great power like the United States.

“If the world wants democracy and order,” he says, “then it must support Ukraine.”

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Many Ukrainians who have followed the U.S. presidential contest almost as if it were their own nervously expressed the sense that their country’s future hung in the balance of an election in which they had no say.

“Of course we all want this war to end,” says Mr. Maschenko, whose son died in battle last year. “But when [former President Donald] Trump says he can end it in two days, it is not real. Our only hope now that he will be back in power is that he will change his position on supporting Ukraine.”

Yet for all the morning-after realism for some, many Ukrainians remain apprehensive about an election they have been glued to for months.

“I don’t want to lose Ukraine, but what we hear from the television analysts is that with Trump we will lose the war, and then Russia will take Ukraine from us,” says clothes vendor Tetiana Hrabchak.

Noting that her heart wanted “Kamala” while her head told her it would be Mr. Trump, Ms. Hrabchak says, “All we can do now is hope for the best for Ukraine.”

Ivan Maschenko kneels down to brush two fingers across the framed portrait of his son Oleksii, who died in battle last year defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion force.

“Of course we all want this war to end, but when [former President Donald] Trump says he can end it in two days, it is not real,” Mr. Maschenko says, surveying the vast monument to Ukraine’s war dead that has sprung up in Kyiv’s central Maidan Square.

“Our only hope now that he will be back in power is that he will change his position on supporting Ukraine, and change for the best.”

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

Many Ukrainians who have followed the U.S. presidential contest almost as if it were their own nervously expressed the sense that their country’s future hung in the balance of an election in which they had no say.

Like most Ukrainians, Mr. Maschenko had been following the U.S. presidential election almost as if it were his own. Before Wednesday morning, many people across Ukraine’s capital expressed nervously a sense that their country’s future hung in the balance of an election in which they had no say.

Like many of his compatriots, Mr. Maschenko asserts that what happens in Ukraine matters for the world, and so it must matter to a great power like the United States.

“If the world wants democracy and order,” he says, “then it must support Ukraine. If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wins,” he adds, “he will not stop here and he will march to all of Europe.”

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