‘F**k Trump’: Kyiv Faces the Darkest Hour

Ukrainian fears that the country would be abandoned by the new Trump administration have turned out to be unfounded. Instead, it’s looking more like an outright betrayal.

This week the US president turned reality on its head as his officials cosied up to their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia, and he launched an astonishing tirade against President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” that refused to hold elections.

So what’s actually going on? No one quite knows for sure the motivation behind Trump’s outbursts. 

Various experts have told me it could be a move designed to shock Europe into taking responsibility for its own security, an attempt to split Russia away from China or, the most concerning of all, Trump is simply embracing authoritarianism.

Then of course there’s also the curious case of the Daily Beast, which published an article alleging Trump was recruited by the KGB in the 1980s, only for the article to disappear a few minutes later. (Byline Times’ version of the story remains online).

Whatever the reason, it’s almost irrelevant as the outcome is the same — Vladimir Putin is getting exactly what he wants.

No longer isolated on the international stage, the US-Russia meeting in Saudi Arabia this week saw Kremlin officials front and center, and discussing the future of Ukraine, without Ukraine.

Marco Rubio, who led the US delegation, said he was “convinced” the Russians were serious about negotiating a peace.

Yet that night in Kyiv, just like almost every night for months now, the sound of air defenses shooting down some of the 150+ kamikaze drones that Russia launches against Ukraine on a daily basis, once again boomed as people slept.

Hardly the sound of people set on “peace.”

The mood here in Kyiv is the darkest I’ve felt since the early days of the full-scale invasion, and the phrase “fuck Trump” is regular refrain.

A Ukrainian MP when asked for his thoughts on the current situation, simply replied with a YouTube link to the trailer for the film “Darkest Hour.”

Regardless, Trump, Elon Musk, and their legions of followers continue to pump out lies, exaggerations, and disinformation about Ukraine and Zelensky so here’s the information you need to arm yourself with if you feel like wading into the social media debate.

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Who’s the Dictator?

That would be Putin. The Kremlin routinely rigs elections, eliminates political opposition (more than 20 of whom have been killed or died in suspicious circumstances), has a tightly-controlled monopoly on media and the information space, and in 2020, amended the constitution to ensure Putin could rule for life.

In contrast, Ukraine has held elections since independence in 1991, most of which have been declared free and fair by international observers and when issues have arisen, it’s usually been because of the interference of, you guessed it, Russia.

Ukraine should have held an election in 2024, and Zelesnky’s original term was due to end on May 20 of that year, but Russia’s full-scale invasion and the subsequent declaration of martial law mean that wasn’t possible, in accordance with Ukrainian law.

But the Kremlin — and now Trump — have jumped on the claim Zelensky is illegitimate and therefore elections need to be held so that Russia can negotiate a peace with a legitimate leader.

This is absolute nonsense and almost impossible. Holding elections during wartime would throw up numerous insurmountable issues — safety of voters during Russian missile and drone attacks, the millions of Ukrainians living under Russian occupation unable to vote, soldiers fighting on the front lines also unavailable to vote, etc etc.

So why the pressure to hold an election?

From the Kremlin’s perspective it makes perfect sense — if an election is held, they could easily disrupt it with missile and drone attacks, force a low voter turnout, and then sow discord and chaos in Ukraine by attacking the outcome’s legitimacy.

If this was combined with a peace deal that required Ukraine to allow pro-Russian parties and candidates, it could eventually lead to the successful completion of Putin’s original invasion aim — installing a pro-Kremlin puppet in Kyiv.

Why Donald Trump also appears to back this approach is a much more baffling issue.

Yet despite the fact elections are unlikely, and the fact that Zelensky sill enjoys broad support in Ukraine, the country’s domestic political scene — dormant since February 2022 — is showing signs of waking up.

Perhaps most visibly, former president and long-time Zelensky rival Petro Poroshenko has been appearing more and more in the public eye in what very much appears to be pre-election maneuvering.

Zelensky beat Poroshenko in the 2019 election and the rivalry has only heated up since then. In 2021, Poroshenko was charged with high treason for allegedly aiding Russian-controlled militants in occupied areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

And then just this month, Zelensky imposed indefinite sanctions on Poroshenko. Citing the treason charges, the sanctions froze all of Porosehnko’s assets, prompting him to accuse the president of taking “politically motivated” actions.

But while all the attention is currently focused on Washington and Kyiv, there are potentially consequential developments on the front lines in eastern Ukraine. Reports indicate that Russia’s grinding advances in eastern Ukraine are actually slowing.

Last week Ukraine managed to retake a village near the embattled city of Pokrovsk, where Russian forces up until now have been making slow and costly advances for months. And anecdotal reports from soldiers in the area, as well as videos on social media suggest Russia is throwing injured soldiers, some of them on crutches, at Ukrainian positions. 

While it’s too early to say for certain if this is a sign of a Russian army on its last legs, it would be a tragedy if Ukraine was forced to negotiate an unfair truce with Russia now if that was the case.