One of the more recent things in short supply in Ukraine right now – alongside US leadership, support and intel – are adjectives.
Just over two weeks ago, I wrote here about how Donald Trump’s apparent betrayal of Ukraine had stunned Ukrainians and created the darkest mood since the early days of the full-scale invasion.
Yet somehow, things have become even darker.
The extraordinary Oval Office showdown between Donald Trump, JD Vance and Volodymr Zelensky left Ukrainians truly gobsmacked.
The Kyiv Independent canvassed Ukrainian soldiers for their reactions. The responses included: “we earned our right to be heard in the world by the Ukrainian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice”; and “I don’t understand how Zelensky held back from slapping him.”
Since then, Trump, Vance and Elon Musk have continued their quest to delegitimise and unseat Zelensky, which was quite literally the original goal of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Trump cuts off military support and intelligence sharing.
Why would Trump do all this? Things have become so bad, and so absolutely upside down, that even British MPs and American lawmakers are asking if Trump is actually a Russian asset.
What was a conspiracy theory just a few weeks ago is now, for many Ukrainians as well as people around the world, the only logical explanation. Because even if Trump hasn’t been groomed by the KGB over decades, he’s certainly acting as if he was.
Aside from all the things already mentioned, the Trump administration has also shut down the task forces that combated Russian influence in American politics, and seized the assets of Russian oligarchs. The US Defence Secretary has even ordered a halt to cyber operations against Russia.
In just six weeks, Trump has given Putin everything he could possibly want – including, potentially, Ukraine.
And the truly remarkable thing is that Russia hasn’t had to concede a single thing to get all this. Only Ukraine is – in the words of Trump’s Ukraine peace envoy Keith Kellogg – being beaten into submission like “a mule with a 2×4 across the nose”.
In a perfectly dark illustration of how perverse America’s courting of Moscow is, I’m writing this during yet another air raid alert. Russia launched 252 missiles and drones – or “peace signals” as Trump seems to call them – at cities all across Ukraine, once again targeting the country’s civilian infrastructure.
During vox pops on the streets of Kyiv on Monday, a young student appealed to Trump, saying: “You need to change your ways now, or there will be no people left to actually enjoy the peace you want in Ukraine.”
Yet there is also a weird sense of relief in the air here – yes, Ukraine can’t rely on the US, but at least it knows where it stands now. And while shocking, it has at least invigorated European leaders to try and do something about it.
In my last column I said Europe had to now step up and take the lead; at a pace that’s truly remarkable given how slowly things usually move on the Continent, it appears it is.
Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership has largely gone unnoticed in Ukraine, but his leading role in attempts to placate Trump and raise the alarm about the need for increased defence spending mean he’s beginning to be viewed as a world leader who truly understands the threat that Russia poses. Though he’s still got a long way to go before he has the fandom of Boris Johnson.
It’s difficult to gauge from here how this is all being viewed in the UK but I get the impression that the enormity of what is happening isn’t yet sinking in.
Unfolding now is nothing less than a total restructuring of the global order that we have known all our lives. The safety and security provided by living in the democratic West is no longer a given.
Of course, all the actions Trump has taken against Ukraine in recent weeks could be nothing more than arm-twisting to get a mineral deal signed, but regardless, the damage has been done.
The UK and Europe can no longer rely on the US and if they don’t follow through and step up their own defences, they are vulnerable.
In this sense, Ukraine should be viewed as living in the future – an example of what can happen if democracies don’t collectively do what is needed to sufficiently defend each other against authoritarianism.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent