"Trump is trying to save his positions ahead of the US elections": political scientist on criticism of Zelenskyy

US President Donald Trump is trying to retain his electorate ahead of the midterm elections to Congress, so Ukraine has become a convenient target for his criticism

This opinion was expressed by Doctor of Political Sciences, expert of the Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Maksym Rozumnyi in the "Teper holovne" project on Espreso.

According to him, Trump's behavior is not something fundamentally new: earlier the American president had already demonstrated political cynicism and resorted to eccentric statements. However, his rhetoric is now largely driven by domestic political circumstances in the US.

"We are on the home stretch to the American elections, to the midterm elections in Congress. And Trump is trying to somehow save the situation, well, at least to keep those rednecks you mentioned with him, to keep them in the core of his electorate," Maksym Rozumnyi explained.

He noted that in such a situation, Trump is ready to ignore the reaction of other countries, in particular Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the political scientist, has become a familiar and convenient object of criticism for the American president.

"In such situations, he does not care what everyone else thinks about him, including Ukraine. Zelenskyy didn't just fall under the hot hand, but is simply a very convenient object for such hate, an object already familiar to Trump," the expert said.

Maksym Rozumnyi also commented on the consequences of the breakdown of negotiations. According to him, the early withdrawal of the Ukrainian negotiating group from the negotiating platform indicates that it was not possible to reach an agreement.

"Our negotiating group left the negotiating platform ahead of schedule. This means that it was not possible to reach an agreement and there is no hope in the near future," the political scientist concluded.

• Recall that on October 9, Trump stated about an "extremely successful" conversation with Putin and an agreement on the supply of Russian diesel to world markets. After that, the US Treasury issued a temporary license for its export.
• Zelenskyy criticized this agreement and called it a weak decision, and Trump replied "good".
• Axios wrote that during negotiations in Miami, Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner threatened the Ukrainian side that the US would deprive Kyiv of intelligence if it continued to attack Russian refineries. This was told by a Ukrainian official, and a US representative denied it.
• On October 10, it became known that US President Donald Trump stated that it is time for Ukraine to change its president, because Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his opinion, never makes deals and could have settled the war with Russia long ago.