Dmitry Kuleba has hedged Kiev’s bets on the 2024 US presidential election
Seeing Donald Trump become the US president again would not be a disaster for Kiev, which would find a way to work with him, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said.
Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021, is running for the White House again against the incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, who has unconditionally supported Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. Many in Ukraine fear that Trump would stop US funding to Kiev if elected, Kuleba was told at an event in Kiev on Wednesday.
“I think, in principle, there is no need to worry,” the foreign minister replied. “Trump is a person you can work with; you just need to be able to work with him.”
Kuleba reminded the audience that it was Trump who sold the first US weapons to Ukraine – Javelin anti-tank missiles, specifically – donated American boats to Kiev’s navy, and opposed the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline by sanctioning a ship that participated in it.
Kuleba also claimed that Mike Pompeo, who led the CIA and the State Department under Trump, told him there was “a strong anti-Russian, anti-Putin consensus in the Republican Party’s DNA” and, therefore, there was nothing to worry about.