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
Maryna Tymchenko walked to the U.S. embassy on Wednesday morning and held up a homemade cardboard sign over her head: “Reagan would have hated it,” the sign read, alluding to the former president who famously called the Soviet Union “an evil empire.”
She said she felt whiplash from the past two weeks as the United States, once Ukraine’s top ally, and the Republican Party, the party of Ronald Reagan, appeared to back Russia in its war against Ukraine.
But Ms. Tymchenko, who skipped lunch for the small protest, was nuanced in her views: She was angry with President Trump, who appeared to blame Ukraine’s leaders for Russia’s invasion of her country. But she was grateful for America’s past support of Ukraine’s war effort.
She was also confused: Why had the United States aligned with Russia? Why had initial talks to end the war taken place between the United States and Russia while leaving out Ukraine? Why was the Trump administration pushing Ukraine to sign a deal — which appeared to be in its final stages on Wednesday — that would grant the United States at least some future profits from the mining of critical minerals in Ukraine?
“It feels like a knife in the back from your dear friend,” said Ms. Tymchenko, 27, who works for an information technology company in Kyiv. “That’s why I’m here. It’s so weird. That’s not what the U.S. is supposed to do. You’re the leader. You’re strong. Why don’t you support us?”
As anti-American protests go, this was more of a plea for help than a shout of anger. There were no chants of “Death to America,” as happens at even the most benign protests in Pakistan or Iran. The woman who organized the protest was gentle in her admonitions.