Ukrainians somber as U.S. partnership disintegrates

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Civilians in this hard-hit eastern city say they are feeling increasingly abandoned by the United States as President Donald Trump escalates attacks on their wartime leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“It is very sad because we feel we’ve lost a partner and a friend,” Ludmilla Ivanova, a 36-year-old math teacher at the facility in the city of Kharkiv, told NBC News Thursday. “We hope that soon President Trump will change his position.”

Ivanova’s comments were echoed by colleagues and parents at this school built underground to withstand Russian attack, as well as many fellow Ukrainians who have watched in horror as Trump reverses American policy of isolating Russia because of its invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory.

In Kyiv on Wednesday, Yuliya Antonyuk, a 42-year-old real estate agent said Ukrainians “couldn’t cope without American weapons and support.”

She wanted “people to stop dying every day,” Antonyuk said.

It was bad enough for many when Trump last week announced that he had spent 90 minutes on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Trump echoed Kremlin talking points and misinformation.

On Wednesday, Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator” after the Ukrainian president accused him of living in a Russian “disinformation bubble.” 

Trump also said Zelenskyy was a “moderately successful comedian” and called on Ukraine to hold elections, echoing criticism from the Kremlin. Putin has ruled Russia for all but four of the past 25 years and repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Zelenskyy’s continuing leadership.

Trump went on to warn that Zelenskyy “better move fast” because “he’s not going to have a country left.”

Trump earlier claimed that Zelenskyy had approval ratings of just 4%, even thought an opinion poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that 57% of Ukrainians trust him.

Zelenskyy, who was a popular actor and comedian before running for president, responded by calling that Russian “disinformation.” 

Ukraine last held a presidential election in 2019 and was due to have one last April, but Zelenskyy has said in the past that it is not possible for Ukrainians to go to the polls in wartime and that view is also backed up by the country’s constitution.

A senior Ukrainian official said relations soured after Zelenskyy refused to sign a document presented by a Trump official, promising to give the United States 50 percent of Ukraine’s rare earth mineral rights.

Zelenskyy said Wednesday that American demands that Ukraine should hand over more than $500 billion in rare earth minerals was “not a serious conversation” and added that he cannot sell his country.

In Washington there was some pushback including from Former Vice President Mike Pence who in a direct message to Trump on X wrote, “Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.” 

Republican. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. said in an interview, “Make no mistake about it, that invasion was the responsibility of one human being on the face of this planet. It was Vladimir Putin.”