Maryna Tymchenko went to the United States Embassy on Wednesday morning and organized a homemade cardboard panel above his head: “Reagan would have hated that,” said the panel, referring to the former president which called the Soviet Union “an evil empire”.
She said that she felt on the cervical boost of the last two weeks while the United States, once the best ally of Ukraine, and the republican party, Ronald Reagan’s party, seemed to support Russia in his war against Ukraine.
But Ms. Tymchenko, who jumped lunch for the little demonstration, was nuanced in her opinions: she was angry with President Trump, who seemed to blame Ukraine’s leaders for the invasion of her country by Russia . But she was grateful to the American past support for the war effort of Ukraine.
She was confused: why had the United States been aligned with Russia? Why have the initial discussions to end the war between the United States and Russia while excluding Ukraine? Why did the Trump administration pushed Ukraine to sign an agreement-which seemed to be in its last stages on Wednesday-which would grant the United States at least certain future benefits of the extraction of critical minerals in Ukraine?
“It looks like a knife in the back of your dear friend,” said Tymchenko, 27, who works for an information technology company in kyiv. “That’s why I’m here. It’s so weird. This is not what the United States is supposed to do. You are the leader. You are strong. Why don’t you support us?
As anti-American demonstrations go, it was more a plea of aid than a cry of anger. There were no songs of “death in America”, as it even happens to the most benign manifestations in Pakistan or Iran. The woman who organized the demonstration was gentle in her warnings.
“Trump makes America very small,” said the organizer, Anabella Morina, on several occasions, while holding a banner who said “God, except America” and represented the statue of Liberty, Mr. Trump And President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Russia in a strange embrace.
There were more police and journalists at the doors before the embassy than the handful of demonstrators. The demonstration, announced on Facebook on Monday, took place in the middle of a working day, and most of the participants were retirees or activists.
However, the demonstration was emblematic of what could become a change of Ukrainian opinion on America, President Volodymyr Zelensky taking a more barbed tone towards his longtime ally in the war.
“Our people are used to criticizing their own president – this is our prerogative,” said Morina. “Trump is not allowed to interfere. I apologize in advance of having criticized your president, but he interferes in our business. This is my opinion, but I also know a lot of those who share my point of view – its current policies aim for the defeat of Ukraine. »»
A survey By a Ukrainian company called a rating group which was carried out after Mr. Trump qualified Mr. Zelensky, a dictator noted that the approval of Mr. Zelensky had increased, to 65%, against 57% in January.
“I was against Zelensky myself, I never voted for him,” said Alla Iskra, 61, former economist and director of Casino who came on Wednesday. But, she added, “when Trump opposed Zelensky, we all united.”
Under President Biden, the United States was the biggest supporter of Ukraine, leading an international coalition against Russia and its invasion.
But now, the Mesmes online Ukrainians present photos of Mr. Trump alone, juxtaposed to photos of Mr. Zelensky surrounded by Western leaders, as he was in kyiv on Monday, the third anniversary of the large -scale invasion of Russia .
A frequently shared meme presents an interpretation of cartoons of a well -known photograph of the suburbs of Kyiv de Bucha at the start of the invasion: a broken bike and a young man. Only this interpretation included Mr. Trump looking at the body and saying: “You started!”
Ukrainians generally like a good protest. In fact, the past led to revolutions: the Granite revolution in 1990, the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the revolution of dignity in 2013 and 2014. Throughout the war, the demonstrators gathered on a weekly basis To protest against the fate of Ukrainian war prisoners.
But protests at the United States Embassy in Kyiv have so far been rare.
Several Ukrainians during Wednesday’s demonstration assaulted kyiv’s agreement this week during which he agreed to submit the income of some of his mineral resources to the United States.
Pavlo Derhachov, 35, called him “a new form of colonialism, hybrid colonialism”.
And signs during the demonstration proclaimed “no blackmail” and “no to the looting of Ukraine”.
ISKRA, the former economist who was one of the demonstrators, said that she feared Mr. Trump’s insistence on access to critical minerals in Ukraine.
“When Trump started talking about mineral resources, I thought he wanted to say something good, something about Ukraine’s help and protection,” she said. “But I realized that it was only business – he earned money with Ukraine.”
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn Reports contributed to Kyiv.
