“Perhaps they were mistaken”: Suprun on Ukrainians in the U.S., Trump and new American policy

She shared this during the program “People of Change with Lesia Vakuliuk” on the Espreso TV channel.

“During the Soviet Union, it was the Republicans who were more supportive of Ukraine. President Eisenhower initiated the annual Captive Nations Week, during which people spoke about Ukrainians. Reagan’s name is also often mentioned in diaspora circles. He is seen as a president who contributed to the collapse of the USSR. Many Ukrainians have traditionally been Republicans, and I think they supported not so much Trump personally, but rather the Republican Party,” Suprun said.

Donald Trump has repeatedly shown an ambiguous position regarding Ukraine—particularly on the issue of supplying weapons or providing strategic support. Some Ukrainians in the U.S. viewed him as a “man of action” capable of quickly ending the war.

“Some of them believed that Trump would be able to end the war very quickly once he became president. And they wanted to see that. The problem is, we don’t just want the war to end—we want Ukraine to win, for Russian troops to leave the country, and for us to live again in our sovereign and independent state. Perhaps they were a bit mistaken,” Suprun pointed out.

Amid rising tensions in the U.S. and frequent mentions of possible reductions in support for Ukraine by a new administration, Suprun openly voiced her concerns.

“It’s hard for me to watch what’s happening there now. I’m especially concerned about how the policy of support for Ukraine is changing—whether there will be weapons or not, and what the demands are from the new president and his administration. It’s hard for me to see. I used to live there and wanted life to be better for the people who stayed in the United States, but that was their choice,” she concluded.