Trump is back. Is it worth going into death pit after Republican triumph?

Each update of the U.S. election vote counts digs new grave pits among the Ukrainian segment of social media platforms X and Facebook. Even opinion leaders are sinning by saying that Trump's victory will ‘make things worse’. And they state that ‘I am in mourning’.

However, let's be honest: who decided that if Harris won, we would be very well off? A few weeks ago, the Democratic candidate's headquarters released a list of people who are going to be put in charge of the security and defence sector. The lion's share of them are from the era of Barack Obama, whose geopolitical work inspired Putin's aggression against his neighbours.

Could such officials have been expected to have a better policy than Jake Sullivan's five-year term, with its emphasis on controlled escalation and red lines with the aggressor? Hardly.

Furthermore, Harris has zero experience with Eastern Europe. She was not seriously interested in the Ukrainian war, which has been going on for eleven years. She began to say some meaningful things about our struggle and prospects only at the debate with Trump - and it is difficult to say whether it was sincere or just a preparation of skillful political technologists.

Third. The author of these lines first doubted Harris's victory when she ‘dumped’ a very strong candidate for vice president, Josh Shapiro, a very loyal governor of Pennsylvania. And why ‘dumped’ him, because he is a conservative Jew and a consistent supporter of Israel, who defends the state's right to defend itself and to launch preemptive strikes against Hamas. However, Kamala and her staff wanted the votes of Palestinian supporters. Therefore, the Democrat, who openly said that 1930s-style anti-Semitism would not pass in the United States, was quietly pushed out.

Probably, this personnel decision was the decisive reason why Trump won in Pennsylvania, which was called the main key to victory at the start of the election.

Trump's campaign admitted that it did not expect such a victory, backed by a stronger Congress and Senate, but there are logical reasons for this.

Kamala Harris's rhetoric is much worse than Biden's in many respects.

Take the key issue of relations with China. The Democrat said that she thinks it is worth negotiating with Xi, that the recent steps against China ‘were wrong’. What were these steps? Not so long ago, the US Treasury Department issued rules restricting US investment in China's dual-use technologies. And secondly, it was decided to stop Beijing's access to artificial intelligence so that it would not be used in their army. That is, even on the main issue for the United States, Biden's position was much stronger.

We should also not forget that Americans are tired of the leftist rhetoric of the Obama and Joe Biden era, because transgender toilets and women's marches are good. But there are also problems with the economy, migrants, and a bunch of other things that populists have been turning a blind eye to.

Is Trump a concern and a verdict for Ukraine? His unpredictability and impulsiveness are indeed worrying, but the root of the current problems is definitely not in Mar-a-Lago.

Our global problem is not the desire of the United States to finally deal with its internal problems and stop saving the world for a while. Our problem is the crisis of public administration under Zelenskyy and Yermak. When Presidential Office says no to anyone who would like to work for the good of Ukraine without any political ambitions.

Jealousy of other people's profession and successes has forced many talented government officials to go into private business until better times come, because what was possible under Yatsenyuk, Groysman, and even Oleksiy Honcharuk, Zelenskyy's first prime minister, is unrealistic now.

The crisis of governance in wartime has resulted in another problem. Zelenskyy has taken credit for the feat of the Ukrainian people in 2022. In fact, together with Yermak, they have usurped the image of indomitable winners, put on someone else's khakis - shoving the best officers away - so it is not surprising that Ukraine is judged by these two. And such a Ukraine does not excite Western elites. Turning a nation of volunteers in the headlines into a nation of evaders was definitely not done by the Americans. Who did? Bankova Street's reluctance to go into the wartime economy. And we should learn from the experience of the original Churchill, who burned his victory in the first post-war election to save Britain.

Who's writing ‘it's going to get worse’? And what has been good in the last ten years? There were Barack Obama's calls to the first government after the Revolution of Dignity demanding that we not drive Russians out of Crimea with arms. There was a desire to pack us off to Bosnia and Herzegovina and forget about the Ukrainian issue altogether for the sake of relations with Putin. There were also constant red lines for the Armed Forces and an unwillingness to escalate - although how much further. Coupled with the current constant attacks by shaheds, missiles and the collapse of the frontline in Donbas - when was it better?

How can Ukraine win?

First. Trump's victory is a 100% shift of responsibility and spending on weapons and defence to Europe. Even during his first term, the president hinted at this to Paris and Berlin. And here we have to sell our real combat experience to everyone with maximum benefits - collabs in the defence industry and accession to European NATO.

Second. We will have to build bridges with the Congress and the Senate, where there will be a renaissance of Republicans. We will need to strengthen the presence of different voices in Nashville and Texas, Ohio and Santa Barbara. We'll be talking to Victoria Spartz - she triumphantly won the election to Congress on the votes of the gun owners' association. And it is also worth singing Christian psalms with Mike Johnson, who also became a congressman. Wherever there is American money and weapons, there should be a Ukrainian with a business plan. Not with an outstretched hand and tears.

This is an interesting challenge for the future, which will definitely require many hands and quality minds. And we have no choice but to work with it.

I don't think Trump will end the war in 24 hours, as he promised in the heat of his election rallies. The fate of this war is only in the hands of the Ukrainian soldier and our home front, which must take care of him.

So our goal is to become interesting and useful to the new US elite. And to prepare for the last stage of the war with maximum benefit. When either Russia or Kyiv will survive.

Specially for Espreso

About the author: Maryna Danyliuk-Yarmolaieva, journalist

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.