No betrayal expected from U.S. under Trump, but Ukraine must brace for prolonged war - political expert

Political expert Aleksandr Morozov said this in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on Espresso TV.

"People keep saying that if President Trump were to come to the White House now, some new dynamics would emerge. But it's impossible to draw such conclusions with certainty right now. What we have read from the speeches of Republican strategists who are engaged in strategic planning for the Republicans, these young new Republicans, the so-called "new Republicans," what they are formulating now, yes, it is a different strategy than Biden's. But what they are saying does not sound anything like what Trump himself says, who says on the campaign trail that he will end the war in 24 hours. No, they are saying the exact opposite: that we need to abandon the Biden strategy of a broad struggle for democracy around the world and focus on priorities. But at the same time, they say that since we are competing with Putinism, we need to radically increase sanctions, create an atmosphere of greater uncertainty for the Kremlin from the side of American policy, and so on. Perhaps many believe that there will be no development if Trump is in the White House. What they are talking about is a difficult scenario. But beyond that, there is no significant change here that would make everyone wary and say that some kind of betrayal by the United States will happen now, the global alliance to support Ukraine will collapse," he said.

The Kremlin has problems, this is obvious, but Ukraine has to prepare, talk, and think about a long war going forward, Morozov says.

"The Russian Federation has problems related to inflation, to the increase in the central bank rate, to the lack of people, which is obviously necessary for waging war, and to the staff shortage at enterprises, including the military-industrial complex. Everyone saw Chemizov speak at a meeting of the State Duma a few days ago and say directly that the increase in the central bank rate is hurting the military-industrial complex. But Putin's political intention is clearly stated. His inner circle supports this logic of a long, endless, exhausting war. Putin, who even before the war said that he was "red to the point of death," thus indicating that he was ready to go as far as possible and that even if Russia's economic situation changed, the Kremlin would continue this war, is actually demonstrating the same thing now. After all, there has just been a clear step: Serbian President Vucic spoke with Putin for an hour and a half. After the conversation, he said that Vladimir Putin was not interested in the truce. Vucic asked him if he wanted to move on to some other logic - no, he was not interested," he summarized.

• On November 1, The Hill reported that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has a slight lead over former President Donald Trump in each of the key blue states.