KIEV, November 9. /TASS/. Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has become a shocking surprise for Ukraine’s leadership and may add to political turbulence in the country, triggering a snap presidential election, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Analysis and Management of Politics Ruslan Bortnik told TASS on Wednesday.
"Political confrontation will most probably escalate and the issue of extraordinary parliamentary and, perhaps, presidential elections will heat up as well," Bortnik said.
The expert is convinced that relationships between Russia and the United States, and between Ukraine and Russia could have an impact on such a scenario.
"Given that relations with Russia are not improved and no compromise is reached, pro-American political elites in Ukraine will be replaced with some others," he suggested. "In the case of better relations with Russia, the US will be gradually withdrawing from Ukraine."
The relationship of Kiev and Washington would be changing against the background of Trump’s victory, Bortnik says.
"Relations will not be the same since Trump and his entourage will never forgive Pyotr Poroshenko and the current Ukrainian administration for their attempt to dump Trump’s electoral campaign and that it was Ukraine which had initiated a scandal around Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort, resulting in a partial drop of his (Trump’s) ratings," the expert said.
Ukraine’s president will make attempts to develop contacts with the new US Administration and the latter will even meet him halfway but "Trump has written Poroshenko off. That’s why his administration will be seeking an opportunity to replace Poroshenko, or to restrict his influence, or to isolate him as it used to happen with (Ukraine’s former president) Viktor Yushchenko."
"In any case, Trump’s victory means the end to Poroshenko’s career ladder from the Western point of view as he will become a political outcast for Trump," Bortnik noted.
Republican Donald Trump surpassed the threshold of 270 electoral votes, required to guarantee him a victory at the US presidential election. During the US presidential race, Ukrainian politicians, including top officials, harshly criticized Trump, offering their open support to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Moreover, Poroshenko’s press service has not published his official congratulations to Trump yet.
Ukraine will have to carry out Minsk Agreements
Donald Trump’s election victory will encourage Berlin and Paris to exert more pressure on Kiev with an aim to carry out the Minsk Accords, Alexander Klimenko, leader of Ukraine’s "Uspeshnaya Strana" (Successful Country) party and Ukraine’s former minister for taxes and collections, said on Wednesday.
"The administration of US newly-elected president Donald Trump is unlikely to take into account Poroshenko’s hysteria, tears and sobbing," the politician said. "Now, Ukrainian President Poroshenko will have to obey Merkel’s and Hollande’s demands," Klimenko said adding that Ukraine should expect to come under more pressure to implement the Minsk Accords.
"The world has definitely changed tonight. Ukraine, it’s time for you to wake up from your deep sleep of illusions," Klimenko said.
"Ukraine, which was left swooning from the sweet-sounding speeches of populists financed from abroad, has to wake up at last. No one is waiting for us. We need to use our own minds, chart our own economic course, support our manufacturing base and create jobs domestically," the expert wrote on his page in Facebook.
On Election Day, November 8, United States citizens cast their ballots and elected their 45th US President, Donald J. Trump.
By securing more than the needed 270 electoral votes, Trump, the Republican candidate clinched his presidential victory.