KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Days before the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians are as somber and tense as they were right before Moscow launched the war. Only now, they aren’t just worried about their longtime enemy.
Ukraine’s stunning new threat comes from its once staunchest ally, the United States, whose support appears to be fading as President Donald Trump echoes the narrative of Russian President Vladimir Putin while pledging to stop the fighting between the two countries.
Over three years of war, Ukraine’s initial unity had started to wear thin, as old frictions and political spats reemerged. But after Trump’s false claims this week that Ukraine is led by a “dictator” who started the war with Russia, even some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s harshest critics have rallied around him and feelings of unity have surged again.
“Yes, he’s not a perfect president, but he’s not a dictator,” said Kateryna Karaush, a 25-year-old tech worker from Kyiv who like many Ukrainians — and even some Republicans in Congress — is struggling to wrap her head around Trump’s embrace of Russia, which represents a major about-face in U.S. foreign policy.
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-trump-zelenskyy-putin-c0790f9054c6c69d698ed9aa816158ac
