Ukrainian politicians hopeful that Trump victory is not 'catastrophe' for peace deal

Ukrainian politicians are expressing tentative hopes that the return of Donald Trump to the White House will not necessarily lead to a rapid and humiliating forced peace.

- Dan Sabbagh

An initial 25-minute post-election call on Wednesday, during which the president-elect handed the phone to Elon Musk, is said to have been positive in tone and no specifics of any peace proposals were discussed.

Though Trump promised to "stop wars" in his first speech after his victory over Kamala Harris became apparent, there are no settled outlines of a peace plan yet, giving Kyiv breathing space to press its own case.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian opposition MP, said: "I don't think that Trump's victory is a catastrophe. Ukraine is now his business and if negotiations lead to a disaster it will be his, like Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. This is a person who loves to win."

Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin on the phone on Thursday and discussed the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported last night, citing people familiar with the matter. Trump advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of "Washington's sizeable military presence in Europe", the Post reported.

Ukrainians emphasise the complexity of negotiating with the Russian president. "At some point, Trump has to present a plan to Putin and we will see if Putin wants to stick to it. From that moment there is a new reality," Goncharenko said. "In the meantime, we have to work with the US and with US public opinion."