Trump Victory Will Signal a Shift in Ukraine War. To What Is Unclear.

Europe|For Ukraine, Trump Victory Signals a Shift. To What, Is Unclear.

With Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election, Ukrainians now face an all-but-certain American policy shift in the midst of a war that is turning against them. Russia has made some of the swiftest territorial advances in recent months, and diplomatic efforts are underway by multiple countries to find a negotiated settlement.

Mr. Trump has been critical of continued U.S. aid to Ukraine, and promised that he could end the war in one day — without saying how. It is unclear how any initiative by Mr. Trump would dovetail with those talks, diplomats said in interviews in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, before the election. The diplomats requested anonymity to discuss the efforts.

As Mr. Trump racked up the electoral votes needed to win, the war was still raging in Ukraine. Air alarms sounded in Kyiv, and Ukraine’s general staff headquarters reported that Russia had launched 71 airstrikes by 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

It is a conflict in which no American soldiers are fighting but where American policy holds an outsize influence. The United States is Ukraine’s single most important benefactor for military and financial support, though taken together the countries of the European Union provide more.

Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet, wrote in a commentary on the American election that the war in Ukraine was less central to U.S. politics than the wars in Vietnam or Korea had been. There, “American boys fought and died,” the site noted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wasted no time in offering his congratulations, writing that he appreciated “President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs.”