Russian leaders and media figures responded with a mix of jubilation and caution after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
“There is only one place in the world where the mood is worse than it is at Kamala Harris’s campaign headquarters: Bankova Street, the office of the president of Ukraine in Kyiv,” the host of the Russian TV show The Big Game, Dmitry Suslov, said after the election, according to a translation from Russia analyst Julia Davis.
“Trump now has 24 hours to end the war in Ukraine. Donald, the clock is ticking! This is what Trump has promised,” presenter Olga Skabeeva said of Trump’s “resounding” victory, according to Davis.
Another Russia TV commentator suggested Trump would now “blackmail” Ukraine into surrender by cutting off U.S. aid.
Others on Russian TV praised Vladimir Putin’s mock September endorsement of Kamala Harris as a brilliant strategic play to boost Trump.
On the campaign trail, Trump has said he would end the Ukraine war in a day, or ever before taking office, and has also suggested he would stop U.S. aid to Ukraine. The president-elect claims he could find a deal to end the conflict that would be suitable to both sides, something unlikely given the irreconcilable positions of Ukraine and Russia over the terrritory in question.
Russian officials, meanwhile, were slightly more cautious in their appraisals of the election results.
"Trump has one useful quality for us: as a businessman to the core, he mortally dislikes spending money on various hangers-on and stupid hanger-on allies, on bad charity projects and on voracious international organizations," former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now a senior security official, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.
"The question is how much Trump will be forced to give to the war. He’s stubborn, but the system is stronger," Medvedev said.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, said Russia has “no illusions” about Trump and still saw the U.S. as an “unfriendly” country on the other side of a conflict against Russia.
“We have repeatedly said that the U.S. is able to contribute to the end of this conflict. Will this happen, and if so, how ... we will see after [Mr Trump’s inauguration] January,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
For his part, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy made overtures to Trump, congratulating him on his victory and emphasizing past U.S. support for their defense effort.
“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs,” the Ukrainian wrote on X on Wednesday. “This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together. “
