The victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections in the USA may lead to significant changes in Washington's foreign policy, in particular regarding Ukraine. During his election campaign, the candidate from the Republican Party repeatedly promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
However, in addition to the aspect related to the war, Trump's return to power can seriously affect the domestic political situation in Ukraine.
In particular, the fate of Zelenskyi.
In political circles, there are two diametrically opposed points of view on this issue.
According to one of them, Trump hates Zelensky, and therefore the relationship between them will be very bad, up to forcing the president of Ukraine to resign.
The second point of view indicates that Zelenskyi has a very good contact with the US president-elect, and therefore no major problems are expected at Bankova. On the contrary, they expect to take advantage of Trump's arrival to nullify the influence of grant activists, public figures, media and politicians connected to the American embassy and the Democratic Party. This group from time to time spoils the life of the President's Office, demanding some reforms and accusing them of insufficient fight against corruption, while constantly appealing to Western structures.
OP believes that under Trump this group will lose the support of the American state apparatus. They also expect that the new president will replace the US ambassador in Kyiv, Bridget Brink, who takes care of these activists, which annoys Bankova to such an extent that Zelensky even asked Blinken about her recall. Blinken replied with a refusal, but under Trump, OP has a chance to get his way.
However, sources suggest that problems may begin for Zelenskyi and Yermak if they reject Trump's approved plan to end the war. However, the probability of this source is estimated as minimal.
"If Trump and the State Department approve a plan to stop the war on the front line with a moratorium on Ukraine joining NATO and Putin agrees to it, then the probability that Zelensky will refuse is close to zero. The country is not in the position now to refuse its main partner, without whose support it will be almost impossible to continue the war. Another question is that the "hawks" in the Republican Party can convince Trump to abandon plans to stop the war in Ukraine and continue to finance it, but that is a separate story. In any case, Zelensky will move within Washington's strategy
," the source said.
A separate aspect is the church issue. On the eve of the election, a number of prominent members of Trump's team, including vice-presidential candidate Vance, condemned the law passed by the Verkhovna Rada, which opens the way to banning the UOC. And, according to the source, it is possible that this topic will be raised again with Trump, prompting the Ukrainian authorities to adjust their church policy.
At the same time, any changes in Washington's policy towards Kyiv are possible only in one case - if Trump is able to take control of the State Department and the state apparatus, which he failed to do in his first term, when the foreign policy of the US, in particular with regard to Ukraine, continued to define, in fact, the former team associated with the Democratic Party. And therefore there were no special changes in this course. How it will be this time - we will see after January 20, when Trump returns to the White House.
Well, for now, without waiting for the inauguration of the new president, "walkers" from the Ukrainian authorities and from various influential groups who are trying to establish contact with the Trump team, lobbying for their issues, have come to Washington.
