ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
This week, President Trump made a huge geopolitical pivot. Writing on his platform, Truth, Social, Trump said he believes Ukraine can win the war against Russia and regain all of its lost territory. The announcement came after Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the U.N. General Assembly, and it's a pretty stunning reversal for Trump. In the past, he's praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he temporarily paused aid to Ukraine earlier this year. So how are Ukrainians feeling about the U.S. president's shift? Olga Rudenko is the chief editor for the Kyiv Independent, and she joins us now. Olga, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
OLGA RUDENKO: Hi. Hi, Andrew. Thank you for having me.
LIMBONG: I want to start with that question I just posed. How was this news received in Ukraine? Were you surprised?
RUDENKO: Oh, I mean, how can you not be surprised at that? It was stunning, as you said, I mean, for President Trump to make such a big U-turn. I remember very vividly when he made his first clearly pro-Russian statement. That was a very big thing here. We were devastated that evening because the worst expectations were coming true. And now he's - you know, all these months later, he's suddenly making a completely different statement. So, I mean, I think we're viewing it with some cautious optimism.
LIMBONG: Yeah. What have you heard personally from, like, friends, family and co-workers?
RUDENKO: I mean, I have to say, Ukrainians are dealing with everything related to the war with a lot of humor. So this latest statement by Trump was - you know, a lot of jokes and memes circulated on Ukrainian social media in the days after, especially about the part of the statement that said that Ukraine can win over its territories back or even go further, so jokes about, like, taking Russian territory, which are obviously just jokes.
LIMBONG: Yeah.
RUDENKO: So it kind of - I think it was a mood booster for everybody, a little bit.
LIMBONG: Yeah, well, you know, just last month after meeting with Putin in Alaska, Trump said that Ukraine would need to give up land in order to reach a peace deal, and now he's saying the opposite. How closely do Ukrainians follow this sort of, like, back and forth of what international leaders are saying about the war?
RUDENKO: I mean, I can say that Ukrainians follow everybody, but definitely follow Trump and follow what he says. I mean, to be honest, when I first saw this statement, this latest one where he made this U-turn, I had to double check that it's real, or rather triple check. I had to go to True Social, which, by the way, is not accessible in Ukraine. You have to go through a VPN. You know, I had to see it with my own eyes because it was so strange.
But at the same time, you know, the position has changed so many times. And there are so many mornings here in Ukraine where we gathered in our newsroom at the Kyiv Independent, and, you know, the first thing on the agenda was to - like, trying to make sense of something that Trump said related to the war or to Ukraine or to Russia and trying to explain it to our readers.
LIMBONG: Yeah. Now, Trump said that the U.S. would continue to supply weapons to NATO, but offered few specifics. And soon afterwards, Polish President Donald Tusk warned that this could signal a shift of responsibility for ending the war to Europe. What do you make of that view?
RUDENKO: The main thing we're watching is Russia's provocations against Europe and against NATO, especially in the past couple of days, with Russia violating airspace of several countries, particularly Denmark and the Baltics. We're closely watching the - both how the U.S. treats this, but also what our neighbors in Poland say. So far, the response to all the Russian provocations in Europe has been, in our view, pretty timid and pretty careful, and it has been bolstering Russia and emboldening to continue.
LIMBONG: At the beginning of the war, there seemed to be a pretty strong sense of hope and optimism in Ukraine - right? - despite Russia's attacks. Do you still see and feel that optimism among everyday Ukrainians?
RUDENKO: I mean, it is, of course, different now, especially from the beginning of 2022, because that was a unique - completely unique time. There was a strange, almost surreal excitement and unity in the air of a people that are going through an unexpected horrible tragedy together and demonstrating resilience and hope. And it is different now, but it is still the same people. It's still the same Ukrainians. It's still - the resilience is still there.
But there is, of course, a lot of exhaustion. I don't know how obvious it is to people in the U.S., for example, but the war is not just concentrated on the frontline. Russia is constantly, constantly every night attacking civilian cities that are way away from the frontline. Like, Kyiv is suffering almost every night from Russian drones and missiles. But so far, even the polls show that still, the majority of Ukrainians are against a solution to the war that gives anything at all to Russia. So that is, for me, a big marker of the hope is still there and still strong.
LIMBONG: Olga Rudenko is the chief editor of the Kyiv Independent. Olga, thank you so much for joining us.
RUDENKO: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
