Ukraine will continue to reach out to Republicans and Democrats and avoid being sucked into US internal politics and a bruising probable contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, officials in Kyiv have indicated.
Its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, paid a warm tribute to the departing Joe Biden on Sunday, thanking him for his “unwavering support”. He praised the US president’s “bold steps” taken in response to “challenging times” and Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“He supported our country during the most dramatic moment in history, assisted us in preventing Putin from occupying our country, and has continued to support us throughout this terrible war,” Zelenskiy wrote on social media.
He said he “sincerely hoped America’s continued strong leadership will prevent Russian evil from succeeding or making its aggression pay off”.
Zelenskiy’s administration has taken pains to pursue an even-handed approach to unpredictable and fast-moving events in Washington. Its top priority is to avoid being dragged into a US domestic political row, which could ultimately weaken its fight against Moscow.
“Our official position is clear. We are looking for bipartisan support,” one source said on Monday, declining to answer what Harris – as presidential candidate or potential future president – could mean for Ukraine.
The result of November’s US election would not change Ukraine’s international priorities, they added. The main one is an end to the war – not with freezing of current battlefield lines but with a “just” settlement. This could only happen with strong US leadership and backing, they said.
Additionally, Kyiv wants favourable decisions that would allow it to degrade Russian capabilities. The Biden administration has refused to allow long-range US weapons to strike targets inside Russia such as military airfields. These are being used to launch cruise missile strikes at Ukrainian cities; a children’s hospital was hit this month in Kyiv.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly called for these US red lines to be lifted, most recently in London where he met Keir Starmer and addressed the cabinet. It is unclear if a future President Harris would be more sympathetic to Ukraine’s argument. Its military is already conducting regular strikes within Russia using long-range kamikaze drones.
In April the Washington Post said Harris raised these attacks during a private meeting with Zelenskiy at the Munich Security Conference. She reportedly urged him to stop blowing up Russian oil refineries, arguing that this tactic drove up global oil prices and invited Kremlin escalation. The request “irritated” Zelenskiy and his top aides, the Post suggested.
Harris has met Zelenskiy on five other occasions. Their last encounter took place in June at a peace summit organised by Ukraine in Switzerland, where she deputised for Biden. Their talks have been friendly and, it is understood, relatively brief. They also met in Munich in February 2022, a momentous period just before Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s international borders.
As vice-president, Harris has been forthright in her support for Kyiv. During the 2020 election campaign she condemned “Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea”, calling it a “flagrant violation” of post-1945 international norms. She opposed the six-month delay by congressional Republicans to a $61bn Ukraine security package. And she described Kremlin attacks on Ukrainian civilians as “crimes against humanity”.
Despite frustrations over targeting, and the slow pace of arms deliveries, Kyiv’s relations with the Biden White House have been warm. At the same time Ukraine’s leadership has made pragmatic overtures to the Republicans. Speaking in April, the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told how Ukrainian deputies had wooed Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, by inviting him to a prayer breakfast.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, or how political elites in the US will behave,” Kuleba said. “What we learned from the first tenure of Donald Trump as president is there is always a way out of any crisis. We’ve been so many things since 2014 [when the war with Russia began] that, without exaggeration, we are ready for anything.”
Trump has famously boasted he will settle the Russo-Ukrainian war in a day. It is widely assumed that if he wins this autumn’s US presidential election Trump will cut off aid – military and economic – to Kyiv. Ukrainian officials think this is a misreading of the situation. They say Trump is unpredictable and add that nobody quite knows what his Ukraine policy will be, if he wins.
In 2019 the then President Trump rang Zelenskiy and urged him to dig up dirt on Biden’s son Hunter. The phone call lead to Trump’s impeachment. Last week, on Friday, the two men spoke again after Trump formally accepted the Republican party’s nomination for president. Writing on Truth Social, Trump talked of Zelenskiy in glowing terms and said they had “a very good phone call”.
It lasted about 20 minutes, it is understood. Zelenskiy began by asking Trump about the “shocking” assassination attempt against him in Pennsylvania the previous weekend. “I wished him [Trump] strength and absolute safety in the future,” Zelenskiy posted afterwards on X. He confirmed they had agreed to meet in person to discuss a “fair and truly lasting” peace.
