Ukrainian soldiers are removing stars and stripes cloth patches from their uniforms once worn as a tribute to the US as anger grows at Donald Trump.
On the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, a high-ranking officer who rejoined Ukraine’s military in the first days of the full-blown invasion admitted there was widespread disappointment with the US president among comrades of all ranks.
The soldier, who uses the callsign Black, said the badges had been frequently worn by Ukrainian soldiers as a sign of gratitude and solidarity with the US.
At the hardest moments of the war, support from the US was not only of great importance as a supplier of weapons and a vital economic prop, but also a huge morale-booster.
But Washington’s apparent rapport with Putin amid a stream of accusations against Ukraine by Trump are changing perceptions about the US.
Black said: “We thought of Americans as comrades even though the US did not have boots on the ground here. Everyone in the military is assessing how Ukraine would fare even if there was a total cessation of American weapons.”
Some attribute Trump’s hostility to Ukraine as revenge for President Volodymyr Zelensky refusing to fall in with Trump’s demands during his first presidency to concoct political dirt against Joe Biden. That led to Trump’s first impeachment, a humiliation he has never forgotten.
Volvo is the call sign of a military doctor in charge of an evacuation unit close to the frontlines in Kupiansk, in the eastern Kharkiv region, scene of constant intense battle since the Feb 2022 invasion.
He said: “We know Trump has no affection for Ukraine. Trump loves himself. His actions are not for America’s benefit, everything he does is for himself.”
Others, like Yura, a former airborne soldier who served in Ukraine’s forces after Putin’s 2014 incursion and again after the 2022 invasion, have tried to find more positive explanations: “Perhaps he is trying to make Putin trust him before he presents a plan that will be good for Ukraine.”
Sanych, a career army officer, has fought against the Russians since the 2014 invasion in various capacities including as deputy of a volunteer battalion deployed before the 2022 incursion near Mariupol.
Now of retirement age, he commands one of the units of pick-up trucks mounting large calibre machine-guns scattered around Kyiv and its outskirts whose job it is to knock out Russian drones.
The Independent talked to him after he had spent the early hours of Sunday morning taking aim at some of the 267 Shahed drones Russia launched against Ukraine. He said they managed to shoot a drone which came down in a field.
He also was considering taking off an American flag badge from his medical kit. “It’s not an easy thing to do. I like America and I think of Americans as our allies and brothers in arms.
“Things would be harder without the US then with them. But today we have become a much stronger society than three years ago and we will not be beaten.”
Black said that America starved Kyiv of weapons previously for seven months in 2023-24 and that had shown Ukraine that it must manufacture its own supplies instead of relying on someone else.
Yuri Sak, adviser to the minister of strategic industries said: “No other nation in the world wants to end this war more than us, Ukrainians. But we know there is only one way to end it and achieve a just peace and that is through force.
“Putin also knows this and that’s why he is trying to provoke rifts among and inside our allies. If our unity cracks, we will be weak and he wins. So we must focus on what unites us, and don’t dwell too much on what divides us.
“Our unity is Kremlin’s worst nightmare. If we preserve our unity – we can end this war in 2025.”
He said the government is concentrating resources on developing its own weapons including 2.4 million aerial drones last year, with more planned for 2025 including robotic ground weapons.
Ukraine has also developed three different types of missiles capable of striking 1,000 kilometres deep inside Russian territory and is working on a ballistic missile capable of reaching even further with a bigger payload.
Black said Trump cannot force Ukrainians into a peace arrangement that does not take Ukraine’s long term security into account.
“We are not going to give up and will continue to fight with any means at our disposal,” he said. “We have no choice, because we understand that if we surrender, we disappear.”
