Trump has a key decision to make on Ukraine – is he an ally of Kyiv or Putin?
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Kyiv’s residents know the incoming president is no particular friend, writes Sam Kiley in the Ukrainian capital – but they hope he has the sense not to offer any advantage to the Russian leader. Critics of Donald Trump may sigh with irony as he takes the presidential pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America – and hope that he holds back on pledges to tear into the foundation document of modern America in the hours after taking office. In Ukraine, no one’s holding their breath.
![[Ukrainians in the 24 Separate Mechanized Brigade firing a howitzer towards Russian forces near the town Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/11/2194301848.jpg)
In Ukraine’s capital they know that the 47th president of the US is no particular friend. They also believe he’s potty about Vladimir Putin, and that may be to their advantage when Trump comes around to renewing military support for a nation fighting off the Kremlin.
Officials here are philosophical and diplomatic, even when speaking privately, about the incoming president. They’re keen to make a new relationship work, but also know that if there’s one legacy Trump won’t want attached to his name is that he was a patsy for the Russian president.
Trump’s first term in office was dogged by allegations and investigations into Russian interference, in his favour, during the 2016 election. He went to extraordinary lengths to shut Americans out of his own meetings with Putin, kept details of the encounters secret, and frequently sided with Russia against his own intelligence and security agencies.
After he revealed highly sensitive intelligence relating to Isis terror plots, to the Russian ambassador in Washington, Trump was considered a “liability” by the spy agencies of at least two US allies, intelligence sources said. That view of him has not faded among intelligence agencies who would normally share their most sensitive secrets with the US.
