News of Trump’s long phone call with Putin filtered through to Kyiv, followed by reports of his subsequent press conference, during which Trump rubbished the idea that Ukraine would be an equal partner in potential upcoming talks and even appeared to suggest that Russia may have a right to hold on to some seized Ukrainian territory because “they took a lot of land and they fought for that land”.
He added that Trump had destroyed the two main pillars of US foreign policy in Ukraine up to now: of ensuring prior coordination with Kyiv before any contact with the Kremlin, and insisting that Ukraine should decide itself when it would sue for peace.
The first thing Olena Litovchenko thought, when she read the news of Donald Trump’s phone call to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday evening, was that it might finally be time for her to leave Ukraine.
Serhii, a 39-year-old soldier who was on leave from the front line, said he had little confidence in Trump to do a deal advantageous to Ukraine: “We saw how he was during his first presidency … Putin’s doormat,” he said.
Zelenskyy, aware that he cannot burn his bridges with Trump, put a brave face on the call to Putin, calling it “unpleasant” while speaking to journalists on Thursday but claiming the subsequent call he had with Trump was “a very good conversation”.
