Ukraine woos President-elect Donald Trump with flattery, pleading, even a Nobel nomination

KYIV, Ukraine — From desperate stabs at diplomacy to fanciful expressions of flattery, Ukrainian officials are doing everything they can to bring President-elect Donald Trump into their corner as they try to strengthen their position in the war against Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenski of Ukraine traveled almost 1,500 miles last weekend on the off chance he could meet with Trump in Paris. (He did.) Ukrainian leaders have delayed signing a critical minerals cooperation agreement with the United States, with an eye toward letting Trump claim credit after taking office. (Rather than President Joe Biden.) One Ukrainian lawmaker even nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“The fate of Ukraine depends on Trump,” said the lawmaker, Oleksandr Merezhko. He said he spontaneously nominated Trump for the prize last month because of his promise to bring peace to Ukraine and his decision to sell the country anti-tank Javelin missiles during his first term. “We should appreciate what he’s done for us. We should be thankful.”

Since the election in November, Ukrainians have repeatedly tried to press their case with the president-elect, known for his skepticism about American support for Ukraine’s war effort and even about Zelenski himself. Trump recently told the French magazine Paris Match that ending the war in Ukraine would be his main foreign policy priority after his inauguration next month. He has vowed to try to start peace talks as soon as taking office.

With his military losing ground in Ukraine’s east, Zelenski’s public messaging has shifted since Trump’s election. He is portraying Ukraine as being open to negotiations that could involve concessions, including ceding Russian-occupied territory in the east and regaining it later through diplomacy. That is meant as a signal to Trump’s foreign policy team that the Ukrainian leader is reasonable compared with the nuclear saber-rattling of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“They want to secure their place on the new U.S. administration’s radar,” said Alyona Getmanchuk, the head of a Kyiv-based think tank, New Europe Center. “They’re trying to establish contacts, build bridges.”

Perhaps the most audacious effort occurred after Ukrainian officials learned that Trump planned to go to Paris this month for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

First, they pushed for help from the French president’s office to organize a meeting between Zelenski and Trump, according to a French official who requested anonymity to discuss the preparations. Then, with no guarantee of a meeting, Zelenski’s team traveled many hours to Paris from Kyiv by train and plane.

The meeting was confirmed just before Trump walked into the Élysée Palace for talks with France’s president. Less than an hour later, Zelenski joined them. The discussion among the three men, supposed to last 15 minutes, stretched to 45.

“President Trump is, as always, resolute,” Zelenski wrote on social media shortly afterward, posting a photograph of their handshake under the palace’s gilded ceilings and chandeliers. “I thank him.”

This past week, Zelenski added flattery, writing that he had told Trump that Putin “fears only him and, perhaps, China.”

Other efforts to appeal to the president-elect included a trip to Washington this month by Zelenski’s powerful chief of staff, who met with members of Trump’s team.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has been Ukraine’s biggest supplier of military aid, more than $62 billion worth, and Biden has been one of Ukraine’s biggest defenders on the international stage.

But Ukraine’s war prospects are looking dim: Russia now occupies about 20 per cent of the country and is pressing ahead relentlessly to capture more eastern territory. And Ukraine’s recruitment system has not produced enough qualified new soldiers.

During his campaign, Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours. He has not said how, but given his skepticism over aid to Ukraine, officials in Ukraine fear he will immediately cut off the flow of money and weapons and try to force a settlement on terms favorable to Russia.

A hint at how Trump might proceed comes from Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser whom the president-elect has nominated to be special envoy to Ukraine and Russia. In a research paper published by a pro-Trump think tank in April, Kellogg proposed peace talks between Ukraine and Russia with major consequences: If Ukraine did not participate, U.S. aid would be cut off. If Russia did not participate, Ukraine would get more U.S. aid.

Trump has had a tricky relationship with Zelenski — the first phone call between them in 2019, in which Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden, led to Trump’s first impeachment. Their second phone call didn’t happen until last July.

Trump has also spoken favorably about Putin and said he wants to establish a positive relationship with him.

Zelenski’s team is betting that Putin isn’t ready to negotiate in good faith, despite claims by aides that Putin is open to peace talks, analysts said.

“They’re trying to explain to Trump and his people that if there is someone who doesn’t want to negotiate now, it’s Putin, not Zelenski,” Getmanchuk said. “Part of the Ukrainian tactic is to show that they’re constructive, realist.”

Ukrainian officials and business people have also tried to appeal to Trump’s transactional approach, saying the country is rich in natural resources that could support U.S. industries Trump wants to boost.

Ukraine has deposits of 20 critical minerals, such as cobalt and graphite, with reserves valued up to $11.5 trillion, according to Horizon Capital, Ukraine’s leading private equity firm. The country is home to a third of Europe’s proven lithium reserves, a key material for rechargeable batteries that could be of interest to the electric car business of Elon Musk, a Trump ally.

Ukraine had planned to sign an agreement to cooperate on extracting and processing minerals with the Biden administration. But Ukrainian authorities have postponed the signing twice, according to officials on both sides — a signal that Ukraine may be waiting for Trump to take office to present the deal as an early victory for his administration.

“This war is about money,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally, told Fox News last month. “So Donald Trump’s going to do a deal to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals. A good deal for Ukraine and us, and he’s going to bring peace.”

There are signs that Ukraine’s message is getting through. On the day after meeting Zelenski, Trump wrote on social media that Zelenski and Ukraine “would like to make a deal and stop the madness.”

But there are also signs that Trump is hedging his bets. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’s open to reducing military aid to Ukraine.

One continuing point of friction is Zelenski’s insistence that Ukraine be granted NATO membership. That demand is unlikely to resonate with Trump, who is sceptical of NATO itself and aware that Putin considers Ukrainian membership a non-starter. Kellogg has said that Ukraine’s allies should put off NATO membership for Ukraine for an extended period to convince Putin to join peace talks.

For all of Trump’s bluster, many in Ukraine have pinned their hopes on him to end the war on acceptable terms. A recent poll by the New Europe Center found that 44 per cent of Ukrainians trust Trump, higher than in any other European country, including Trump-friendly Hungary.

Part of that support, Getmanchuk said, stems from the disappointment many Ukrainians feel with Biden’s cautious approach to helping Ukraine’s military. Some Ukrainians nickname Biden “2L” — for “too little, too late.” Trump’s vow to end the war quickly has resonated with a growing number of war-weary Ukrainians who now favor peace talks, even though they do not want to cede territory.

At the Trump White Coffee Bar — one of at least two Kyiv cafes named for Trump — customers said they wanted him to fulfill his campaign promise.

“I hope Trump will do what he promised — for peace to come to Ukraine,” said Yulia Lymych, 25, a real estate agent. “This is the main wish of Ukrainians. I feel very sorry for the guys who died at war. I have friends who died and friends who are still fighting. My boyfriend is fighting. I want them all to come back home.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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