KYIV — Eight minutes into his victory lap at Israel’s parliament on Monday, President Donald Trump was already looking to the next conflict that he intends to settle. “The war with Russia and Ukraine, a war that [should] have never happened. . . . but we’ll get that one,” he said. A day earlier, Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that they had just talked on the phone for two days in a row. They will meet in Washington on Friday, and Zelensky has said that he hopes Trump will use the same tactics used to great success in Gaza to pressure Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
It seems like all this would be welcome news in Kyiv. The Trump-Zelensky summit comes less than a year after the Oval Office blowup, when Zelensky corrected Vice President J.D. Vance in front of the press, was kicked out of the White House by Trump, and went home empty-handed. Many Ukrainians feared that the White House might abandon their cause. Trump’s reengagement now could mean more long-range missiles for Ukraine and harsher sanctions on Russia.
But few Ukrainians share their president’s optimism that Trump could bring an end to the war itself. Within Ukraine’s government, there is less hope for a ceasefire than concern that President Trump will lose interest in the conflict once again.
