Trump's promise of strong U.S. leadership should begin with Ukraine – Yatsenyuk
New U.S. President Trump's promise of strong U.S. leadership should begin by resolutely backing Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, head of the Kyiv Security Forum, has said.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to outsmart Trump and views the invasion of Ukraine as an opportunity to humiliate the United States on the global stage… If the West allows the current invasion of Ukraine to succeed, the main beneficiaries will be Russia and fellow authoritarian regimes including China, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, along with an assortment of rogue actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah. This Axis of Autocrats is already taking shape against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine," Yatsenyuk wrote in an article for the leading think tank Atlantic Council.
He stressed that the emergence of an autocratic new world order would be disastrous for U.S. interests.
"NATO would be deeply discredited, while authoritarian dictators everywhere would be emboldened. The U.S. dollar would give way to the Chinese yuan as the global currency of choice, while many current partners of the United States throughout the Global South would begin leaning increasingly toward Beijing," Yatsenyuk said.
He also recalled that in 2021, "Putin watched the botched United States withdrawal from Afghanistan with glee," and he is now eager to repeat the process in Ukraine. Putin, Yatsenyuk emphasized, is convinced this would shatter the credibility of the United States, while dramatically enhancing Russian influence across Europe and beyond.
"Trump has the opportunity to prevent all this. By resolutely backing Ukraine, he can stop the slide toward World War III and reestablish U.S. leadership at a time when international stability is increasingly threatened by Putin's Axis of Autocrats," Yatsenyuk said.
Stopping Russia will require bold actions, Yatsenyuk emphasized. This means introducing and strictly enforcing new sanctions that will deprive Moscow of funding from the energy exports that finance the invasion. It means putting pressure on all those who directly or indirectly help the Russian war effort.
In parallel, military support to Ukraine must increase significantly, while restrictions on Ukraine's ability to defend itself must be lifted.
"Ukraine needs ironclad security guarantees that will keep the country safe from further Russian aggression until it is able to join NATO. A Trump Plan modeled on the post-World War II Marshall Plan and funded by confiscated Russian sovereign assets can fuel Ukraine’s postwar recovery," Yatsenyuk said.