As Kateryna Starikova watched Donald Trump become the next president of the United States, she felt a growing concern for Ukraine’s independence and fear for the safety of her family still living there.
“With Biden, we had weapons, we had support … America tried to help us, but now we’re not sure,” she told CBC News.
Starikova, who immigrated to Canada from Ukraine two years ago, said she is worried about how the new Trump administration might try to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Results from Tuesday’s national election in the U.S. showed early Wednesday that the 78-year-old Trump would return to the Oval Office after four years out of power, with a decisive win over current Vice-President Kamala Harris and the Democrats.
Trump has frequently criticized the tens of billions of dollars in weaponry and financial aid that the U.S. has sent to help Ukraine in its war efforts, and he vowed as president to end the war, even promising to do it in as little as 24 hours, despite never specifying how he would accomplish that.
That’s concerning for some Ukrainians, like Starikova, who fear a possible ultimatum from the U.S. or a freeze in funding unless Ukraine signs a peace deal, which might include giving up some of its territories to Russia.
“We [would] lose our country, unfortunately,” she said.
Ostap Skrypnyk, an advisor with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Manitoba, said part of the challenge is how light Trump has been on details and specifics regarding his planned approach on the war.
“There are so many unknowns.… There’s apprehension, a bit of anxiety and in some quarters there’s active concern because at some point you have to take the man for what he says,” Skrypnyk said.
“It’s always a wait and see.”
WATCH | Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly on what Trump’s win means for conflicts in Ukraine, Middle East:
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly said Canada will continue to support Ukrainians and ‘abide by long-term security guarantees that we offered them.’ Joly, who again called for a ceasefire in the Middle East, said she looks forward to ‘constructive conversations’ with her U.S. counterparts.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress will continue monitoring how the situation evolves, while in Manitoba, the council is looking at the trickling effects of a potential change in the U.S. internal immigration policy.
Skrypnyk said a “significant number” of Ukrainians who once lived in Manitoba left for the U.S., but if their status changes due to internal immigration policy changes brought in by Trump’s new administration, some could find themselves moving back to Canada.
“Planning for it at this stage today is too strong forward, but we are aware that these things might happen,” he said. “If people start returning, what kind of services are we going to have to provide for them?”
Fears of increase in racism
Diwa Marcelino, an organizer of Migrante Manitoba, said after Trump’s 2016 election, some asylum seekers in the U.S. contacted the group, which advocates for migrant workers in the province, for assistance and advice.
The president-elect has committed to bringing in “so-called tougher immigration policies” that Marcelino said contravene the United Nations declaration of the rights of migrant workers, and are going to be “very damaging for the U.S.”
He also said immigration policies like the ones Trump has committed to could also influence Canadian politics. But he said the ripple effect of Trump’s election in Manitoba could come from the anti-immigrant sentiment the elected president and other right-wing politicians have used to garner voter support.
“[When] the racist rhetoric is coming from the president’s mouth, it emboldens more people to also be racist, which will increase not just racist attacks but racist policies that will hurt people of colour.”
“In the beginning of Trump’s first presidency, one of the major shifts that we saw even in Canada was the amount of hate crimes that have gone up,” he said.
Hopes for an end to war in Gaza
Meanwhile, Ramsey Zeid, president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba, said the group is hopeful Trump’s upcoming administration could follow through on his promise of ending the war in Gaza.
“We’ll see what happens once he takes office, but we know what [President] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have done already, and he can’t be any worse.”
Zeid said support for the Democratic party within the Muslim community has grown slim in the last year, which he said affected the election results.
“They fully supported Israel and fully funded Israel … we don’t think that would have changed if she had won the election,” he said.
Israel has received more than $18 billion US in American military aid since the start of its year-long wars in Gaza and Lebanon and an escalating conflict with Iran.
Trump has reportedly told Netanyahu he wants Israel’s conflicts ended by the time he is inaugurated on Jan. 20. But on a phone call two weeks ago, he was quoted as telling the prime minister to “do what you have to do” to defend Israel.
“He keeps saying how he wants to make America great again, and he wants America to be first.… If that’s the case, he needs to stop sending funds to Israel,” Zeid said.
“We have to be hopeful, because the way it’s been has been terrible.”
CBC News reached out to the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg as well the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs but they declined to comment.
Donald Trump’s apparent admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with his comments about the war in Ukraine has some in Manitoba fearing the worst. But now that he’s back in the White House, at least one Ukrainian expat wonders if Trump’s words are as ominous as they sound.