The return of Donald Trump to the White House opens a new and uncertain chapter in the war in Ukraine, a conflict that the Republican promises to end in just 24 hours, although kyiv fears that its solution involves the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia.
Uncertainty will increase after the US decision to authorize Ukraine the use of ATACMS missiles (300 kilometers range) on Russian soil, decision that has been reported by the United States press.
According to some media, the use of these missiles would be limited to the Russian region of Kursk, partially occupied by the Ukrainians and where, according to the Western military intelligence, North Korean soldiers participate on the Russian side.
Knowing what is at stake, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was one of the first leaders to congratulate Trump on his victory, with whom he had a phone call in which Elon Musk, who has supported Ukraine with his Starlink internet satellite network, also participated.
For his part, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin publicly congratulated the Republican, whom he described as “brave” for his reaction to the assassination attempt he suffered in July, and was “willing” to maintain contacts with him about the conflict in Ukraine.
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But the Kremlin denied a newspaper report The Washington Post according to which both would have already spoken on the phone.
The truth is that Trump has expressed his admiration for the Russian president in the past, while his relationship with Zelensky has been more controversial.
In fact, in 2019, during his first term (2017-2021), Trump was impeached in the US Congress, from which he was acquitted, for having pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter for their business dealings in Ukraine.
The end of arms shipments?
Five years later, the future of that country may be in the hands of Trump, who during the election campaign said that he would reach an agreement with Putin and Zelensky to end the war in 24 hours, even before the Republican takes power on January 20, although he did not offer more details about it.
What is known is that, under the motto of “America first”, Trump proposes a withdrawal of the American presence in the world, which would affect the military aid that Ukraine receives, country to which Washington has allocated $108 billion since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
And when it comes to weapons, Biden leaves Trump as a legacy the authorization of the use of ATACMS missiles on Russian territory.
The New York magnate, in fact, ordered Republicans to block the approval of an extraordinary package of 61 billion dollars for kyiv that the presidentJoe Biden, asked Congress at the end of 2023.
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Congress ended up giving the green light to that budget, but one of the senators who voted against was Marco Rubio, nominated by Trump as future secretary of state.
The next head of American diplomacy vehemently condemned the Russian invasion when Putin ordered the attack, but recently has expressed positions favorable to seeking a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Some Washington think tanks linked to Trumpism point to a negotiation to declare an armistice on the current battle front line, which in practice It would mean the annexation of part of eastern Ukraine to Russia.
Zelensky affirms that his country wants peace, but maintains that this must be fair and rejects any type of transfer of territories.
But it is true that Trump will have much more influence to extract concessions from kyiv than from Moscow, given that he can condition sending weapons to Ukraine so that Zelensky sits down to negotiate with Putin.
Aware of the skepticism of the new Trump Administration, Biden ordered his team to accelerate the delivery to Ukraine of all funds authorized by Congress that have not yet been disbursed.
With information from EFE.
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