Nataliia Klymyuk, who has been volunteering for 11 years to look after a memorial to war dead in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, said she had never had any illusions about President Trump.
On Wednesday, she stood among a crowd of people at the memorial, on Independence Square in central Kyiv, where tens of thousands of little flags fluttered, each representing a soldier killed during Russia’s relentless invasion. The mood was especially somber.
A day earlier, Mr. Trump, from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, had blamed Ukraine for the violence. “You should have never started it,” he said, referring to Ukrainian leaders who did not, in fact, start the war.
His comment stunned many Ukrainians, who saw it as a blatant betrayal.
“I don’t believe in negotiations,” said Ms. Klymyuk, 51, who plants new flags at the site daily and clears away snow. Referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, she added: “Trump has always been a friend to Putin, and I don’t believe that he suddenly became our friend. He is only pursuing his own interests behind Zelensky’s back.”
Marina Ivashyna, 30, who was passing through the square, said that her father had died in the war and that her husband was missing in action. “It is tough for me — I don’t believe anything good will happen,” she said, bursting into tears. “I don’t believe in these negotiations.”
Ms. Klymyuk’s and Ms. Ivashyna’s refrain represents a growing sentiment in Ukraine as the United States and Russia have moved toward a head-spinning reset of their relationship that could disadvantage Ukraine in the war. Ukrainians are becoming disillusioned with the Trump administration, many analysts say.
In December, a large percentage of Ukrainians said they trusted Mr. Trump, who was then the president-elect. On Wednesday, expressions of disappointment and even rage were everywhere: from the front in the east to the streets of Kyiv, from social media to the halls of government buildings.
“Many people were tired of Biden’s indecisiveness and had hopes that Trump would be able to force Russia to end the war, and we can see that they are now disappointed,” said Oleh Saakyan, a political analyst and co-founder of the National Platform for Resilience and Social Cohesion, a Ukrainian think tank.
In his news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump also denigrated Mr. Zelensky and suggested that new elections in Ukraine should play a part in the country’s negotiations with Russia. He deepened his criticism on Wednesday, calling Mr. Zelensky a “dictator” who took money from the United States to go to war with Russia.
“Ukrainians might not like their government, but they are fanatically devoted to the value of freedom of choice,” Mr. Saakyan said. “People in Ukraine get angry when freedom of choice is taken away from them, and that’s exactly what Trump did when he started dictating to Ukrainians that they need elections.”
A 36-year-old special operations soldier fighting in eastern Ukraine, who asked to be identified only by his call sign, Cap, for security reasons, went a step further. “I can be blunt: Trump is like Putin,” he said. “He’ll never tell the truth and will make up whatever he wants.” He added that Ukraine should not rely on Mr. Trump.
“Whenever soldiers hear what Trump is saying, it gives them a nervous twitch,” he said.
Yulia Hrebnyeva, a member of the City Council in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, said she had “no understanding whatsoever” of Mr. Trump’s speech on Tuesday, with its echoes of Russian propaganda.
“We were expecting from him actions that could help us win, not that he would just sit and talk with our enemy,” she said. Early in the invasion, Ms. Hrebnyeva’s house was hit by a falling Russian fighter jet. At the time, she was hiding in the basement with her children.
For many, Mr. Trump’s news conference on Tuesday was a moment of truth. They hoped he would uphold the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s war effort. Instead, the president blamed Ukraine for the war and made several false claims, including that Mr. Zelensky had an approval rating of just 4 percent. In fact, recent polls put his approval rating between 42 and 57 percent.
For other Ukrainians, their confidence in the United States had already buckled over the weekend when it became clear that peace talks with Russia would begin without Ukrainian participation.
“Goodbye America,” Yevhen Dykyi, a political analyst and Ukrainian soldier, wrote on Facebook. “We must accept the reality that we no longer have an ally on the other side of the Atlantic.”
Even opponents of Mr. Zelensky have been angered by Mr. Trump’s comments. Oleksandr Notevskyi, an analyst at the Center for Policy Formation and a vocal critic of the Ukrainian president, lashed out at Mr. Trump for interfering in Ukraine’s domestic politics.
As much as he hoped that another leader would soon replace Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Notevskyi said, he believed strongly that such decisions should be made only by the Ukrainian people. Foreign criticism like Mr. Trump’s, Mr. Notevskyi said on social media, was not just “an attack on Volodymyr Zelensky.”
“It’s an attack on the President of Ukraine, on our sovereign government, and on the Ukrainian state,” he wrote.
“The most important trait of Ukrainians is our ability to unite under pressure and defend our choice,” Mr. Notevskyi later said in an interview. “The vibes are the same. But this time, the target of our rage will be someone else. No one will impose anything on us.”
Ukrainians worry that they have lost the United States as an ally.
“Several factors indicate that the U.S. is no longer a key partner for Ukraine,” said Mariia Zolkina, a Ukrainian political analyst at the London School of Economics. “Even before the start of the negotiations, Trump sacrificed those positions that were fundamental for Ukraine,” including NATO membership and control of territory. Mr. Trump, she said, “gave carte blanche to the occupation.”
Ihor Lachenkov, a Ukrainian civil activist and volunteer, wrote an angry post on Facebook criticizing Mr. Trump’s assertion that Mr. Zelensky could have negotiated. “I am so sick of all this,” he said. “Of course, it’s the bad Ukrainians who just refused to surrender and give up,” he added sarcastically.
Soldiers are also monitoring Mr. Trump’s speeches. His latest comments have left many enraged.
But a soldier from the 82nd Air Assault Brigade, who asked to not be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said Mr. Trump’s statements would not deter him and his friends.
“The primary task of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade is to liberate Ukrainian territory from occupiers and defend our country,” he said. “We will continue doing that, regardless of Trump’s statements.”
Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament from Mr. Zelensky’s party and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that despite Mr. Trump’s words it was important for Ukraine to remain in dialogue with the United States. “The situation is difficult, but not hopeless,” he said. “Trump himself gives advice in such situations: Never give up!”
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