From desperate stabs at diplomacy to fanciful expressions of flattery, Ukrainian officials are doing everything they can to bring President-elect Donald J. Trump into their corner as they try to strengthen their position in the war against Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine traveled almost 1,500 miles last weekend on the off chance he could meet with Mr. Trump in Paris. (He did.) Ukrainian leaders have delayed signing a critical minerals cooperation agreement with the United States, with an eye toward letting Mr. Trump claim credit after taking office. (Rather than President Biden.) One Ukrainian lawmaker even nominated Mr. Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“The fate of Ukraine depends on Trump,” said the lawmaker, Oleksandr Merezhko. He said he spontaneously nominated Mr. 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 Mr. Zelensky himself. Mr. 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, Mr. Zelensky’s public messaging has shifted since Mr. 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 Mr. Trump’s foreign policy team that the Ukrainian leader is reasonable compared with the nuclear saber-rattling of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. 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 Mr. Trump planned to go to Paris last Saturday for the reopening of the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
First, they pushed for help from the French president’s office to organize a meeting between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump, according to a French official who requested anonymity to discuss the preparations. Then, with no guarantee of a meeting, Mr. Zelensky’s team traveled many hours to Paris from Kyiv by train and plane.
The meeting was confirmed just before Mr. Trump walked into the Élysée Palace for talks with France’s president. Less than an hour later, Mr. Zelensky joined them. The discussion between the three men, supposed to last 15 minutes, stretched to 45.
“President Trump is, as always, resolute,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on social media shortly afterward, posting a photograph of their handshake under the palace’s gilded ceilings and chandeliers. “I thank him.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Zelensky added flattery, writing that he had told Mr. Trump that Mr. Putin “fears only him and, perhaps, China.”
Other efforts to appeal to the president-elect included a trip to Washington this month by Mr. Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, who met with members of Mr. 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 Mr. 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 percent 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, Mr. Trump promised to end the war in 24 hours. He has not said how, but given his skepticism over aid to Ukraine, officials in Kyiv fear he will immediately cut off the flow of money and weapons and try to force a settlement on terms favorable to Moscow.
A hint at how Mr. 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, Mr. Kellogg proposed peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow with major consequences: If Kyiv did not participate, U.S. aid would be cut off. If Moscow did not participate, Kyiv would get more U.S. aid.
Mr. Trump has had a tricky relationship with Mr. Zelensky — the first phone call between them in 2019, in which Mr. Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Mr. Biden, led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment. Their second phone call did not happen until this past July.
Mr. Trump has also spoken favorably about Mr. Putin and said he wants to establish a positive relationship with him.
Mr. Zelensky’s team is betting that Mr. Putin is not ready to negotiate in good faith, despite claims by aides that Mr. 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 Zelensky,” Ms. 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 Mr. Trump’s transactional approach, saying the country is rich in natural resources that could support U.S. industries Mr. 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 the Ukrainian authorities have postponed the signing twice, according to officials on both sides — a signal that Kyiv may be waiting for Mr. Trump to take office to present the deal as an early victory for his administration.
“This war is about money,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and 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 Sunday, the day after meeting Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that Mr. Zelensky and Ukraine “would like to make a deal and stop the madness.”
But there are also signs that Mr. Trump is hedging his bets. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was open to reducing military aid to Ukraine.
One continuing point of friction is Mr. Zelensky’s insistence that Ukraine be granted NATO membership. That demand is unlikely to resonate with Mr. Trump, who is skeptical of NATO itself and aware that Mr. Putin considers Ukrainian membership a nonstarter. Mr. Kellogg has said that Kyiv’s allies should put off NATO membership for Ukraine for an extended period to persuade Mr. Putin to join peace talks.
For all of Mr. 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 percent of Ukrainians trust Mr. Trump, higher than in any other European country, including Trump-friendly Hungary.
Part of that support, Ms. Getmanchuk said, stems from the disappointment many Ukrainians feel with Mr. Biden’s cautious approach to helping Ukraine’s military. Some Ukrainians nickname Mr. Biden “2L” — for “too little, too late.” Mr. 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 Mr. 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.”
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