Trump's defeat in the midterm elections: nobody knows what it means for Ukraine. The New York Times. Ukraine and its European backers have spent the past month agonizing over heightened tensions between Kyiv and Washington. In recent weeks, the Trump administration agreed to buy Russian diesel and called on Ukraine to stop targeting Russian refineries. There was no immediate consensus on how the results of the vote might affect Trump's behavior toward Ukraine. Moscow expressed optimism. "President Trump continues to hold office, and we very much hope that he will continue his peacekeeping efforts," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Some analysts have suggested that European leaders should effectively ignore the midterm elections and continue efforts to support Ukraine. Washington, they say, will continue to reduce its support no matter who is in power. It would be a mistake to think that a democratic victory means that "we don't have to solve our problems ourselves, and big brother America will do everything for us," says Nico Lang, director of the Institute for International Security in Berlin. America, he said, "won't do it"—no matter who controls Washington.