According to 42-year-old real estate salesperson Yuliya Antonyuk, Ukrainians “couldn’t cope without American weapons and support
Ukraine’s KHARKIV— Residents of this devastated eastern city claim that as President Donald Trump intensifies his attacks on their wartime leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, they are feeling more and more abandoned by the United States.
“We feel like we lost a friend and a partner, so it is really sad,” Ludmilla Ivanova, a 36-year-old maths teacher at the Kharkiv facility, told NBC News on Thursday. “We’re hopeful that President Trump will soon reverse his stance.”
Colleagues and parents at this underground school designed to survive Russian attacks, as well as many Ukrainians who have watched in horror as Trump reverses the U.S. policy of isolating Russia due to its invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory, echoed Ivanova’s remarks.
Real estate salesperson Yuliya Antonyuk, 42, stated in Kyiv on Wednesday that Ukrainians “couldn’t cope without American weapons and support.”
Antonyuk stated that she wished for “people to stop dying every day.”
Many people found it already awful when Trump revealed last week that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes on the phone. Trump repeated talking lines and false information from the Kremlin during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meeting with Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov earlier this week.
Following Zelenskyy’s accusation that he was living in a Russian “disinformation bubble,” Trump referred to the Ukrainian president as “a dictator” on Wednesday.
In line with Kremlin criticism, Trump also referred to Zelenskyy as a “moderately successful comedian” and urged Ukraine to organise elections. Putin, who has dominated Russia for all but four of the previous 25 years, has frequently questioned Zelenskyy’s ability to continue as leader.
Zelenskyy “better move fast,” Trump continued, warning that “he’s not going to have a country left.”
Trump had earlier said that Zelenskyy had only 4% approval ratings, despite the fact that 57% of Ukrainians trust him, according to an opinion poll published Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
In response, Zelenskyy, a well-known comedian and performer before to his presidential campaign, referred to that Russian information as “disinformation.”
Zelenskyy has previously stated that it is impossible for Ukrainians to cast ballots during a period of conflict, and the country’s constitution supports this position. Ukraine last held a presidential election in 2019 and was scheduled to hold one last April.
Zelenskyy’s refusal to sign a contract handed by a Trump official that promised to grant the United States 50% of Ukraine’s rare earth mining rights caused relations to deteriorate, according to a senior Ukrainian official.
Zelenskyy stated on Wednesday that he cannot sell his nation and that US demands that Ukraine turn over more than $500 billion in rare earth minerals were “not a serious conversation.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence was among many in Washington who voiced opposition, writing in a direct message to Trump on X: “Ukraine did not’start’ this war.” Hundreds of thousands were killed in Russia’s ruthless and unjustified invasion. The truth must be the foundation of the road to peace.
In an interview, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., stated: “There is no question that one person on the world was responsible for that invasion. Vladimir Putin was the one.
