By Anna Voitenko and Olena Harmash
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainians rejected an extraordinary broadside by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying they had no choice but to fight on against Russia as their key backer engages in talks with their enemy without Kyiv’s participation.
Trump on Tuesday made a verbal attack on Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accusing him of starting the war with Russia, calling for elections to be held, and claiming the Ukrainian president had 4% popularity despite Ukrainian polling to the contrary.
As Zelenskiy gave a press conference in which he said that Trump was living in a “disinformation bubble”, Ukrainians in central Kyiv voiced deep dismay at the new line emerging from Washington, hitherto Kyiv’s most important wartime ally.
“I think this is the wrong policy and the wrong accusations of Ukraine. They are accusing the victim, and he (Trump) is taking our enemy’s side,” said Oksana Krylova, 50.
She said Ukraine had no option but continue to fight for its survival, almost exactly three years since Russia invaded.
“We do not have a different choice, we are forced to do it otherwise we will just be destroyed.”
Ihor Vitek, 54, a retired officer, told Reuters he thought that Ukraine should follow its own policy independently of the United States and try to enlist as much European support as possible.
“If America does not want to help, then let it stay in its own sphere, let it deal with the Indo-China region, we need to contact Europe, first of all the Baltic countries, with Poland and defend our interests.”
The rhetoric from the United States, and what it may signify for the future of U.S. support, could prove a watershed moment in the war, in which the fighting is in a critical stage along a 1,000 km (600 miles) front line.
Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory and its troops are slowly but steadily advancing in the east. Kyiv and other cities are under regular Russian missile and drone attacks. Millions of people fled to elsewhere in Europe to escape the war.
ELECTION FEARS
Particularly worrying for the Ukrainian government is Trump’s call for elections, which have not been held throughout the war because of martial law that prohibits holding a ballot.
Zelenskiy, whose public trust rating is above 50%, according to opinion polls, has said elections will happen straight after the end of the war when martial law is lifted.
Kyiv residents interviewed by Reuters voiced opposition to the idea of holding an election now.
“Elections during the war are impossible. A lot of people have left the country. This is totally irrelevant question, to spend resources for the elections during the war,” said Olha Yurkevych, a 59-year-old artist.
Ukrainian lawmakers have repeatedly voiced fears that an election would be highly destabilising and also vulnerable to Russian meddling if it were held during the war.
They also point to organisational problems like how to have soldiers fighting at the front vote as well as millions of internally displaced people and those living abroad.
Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, said his polls showed that the majority of Ukrainians were against any elections during the war.
“For Ukrainians, there is no problem of legitimacy now… There are, of course, some isolated voices, but they are an absolute minority,” he told Reuters.
Several Ukrainian mayors, lawmakers, and officials took to social media to urge citizens to unite and to offer their support to Zelenskiy.
“It’s time to unite,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram app.
“Now is not the time to lose faith in our abilities, in our ideals, and in our country. United, we are capable of anything. We can not only resist the external enemy but also overcome any difficulties.”
Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, captured the mood in a post on social media: “Ukraine needs bullets, not ballots.”
(Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk, Editing by Tom Balmforth and Angus MacSwan)
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