The consequences for Ukraine of a second Trump presidency are likely to be dire, at a time when Russia is advancing on the battlefield at its fastest pace since 2022. Without US military aid, Ukraine will further lose ground in the Donetsk region, the scene of fierce fighting since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale occupation nearly three years ago, as well as in many other frontline areas, writes The Guardian. Trump once boasted that he could end the decade-long Russian-Ukrainian war in “24 hours.”
His incoming vice president, JD Vance, is an outspoken Kiev skeptic who has said he “doesn’t really care what happens to Ukraine.”
Trump aides have previously sketched out a possible peace deal that would include ceding the eastern regions of Ukraine to Russia, with the existing front line frozen, as well as Crimea, seized in 2014. Russia controls about 20% of the territory of Ukraine. In an interview with The Guardian in May, Zelenskyy made it clear that the formula was unacceptable. Zelenskyy acknowledged that a re-elected Trump could, if he wished, impose a military defeat on his country. “Ukraine, bare-handed, without weapons, will not be able to fight a multimillion-dollar Russian army,” he admitted.
