Trump's return to the White House, resumption of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia: main political events of 2025
Kyiv • UNN
Political scientist Stanislav Zhelikhovsky highlighted the key events of the year: Trump's return, resumption of negotiations, creation of the "Coalition of the Willing", allocation of 90 billion euros to Ukraine, and the PURL mechanism. The expert also mentioned the elections in Poland and Zelenskyy's visit.
This year has been rich in political events. In particular, Donald Trump returned to the White House, the negotiation process for ending the war was restored, the humanitarian track was activated, and new formats for supporting Ukraine were launched, including the PURL mechanism. Stanislav Zhelikhovsky, a candidate of political sciences and international expert, told UNN about the top political events of the outgoing year.
Trump's return to power, restoration of the peace track, meetings between Ukraine and the US
Indeed, the year was difficult, and we must understand that it was even fateful to some extent, although in reality not all our hopes came true. Perhaps not everyone had such hopes, but there were assumptions that this year would be more successful for us in the context of ending hostilities. This was precisely connected with the start of the negotiation process, and its catalyst was the return of Donald Trump to the Oval Office.
According to him, for the first time in several years, Ukraine communicated with the Russians through the mediation of the United States and Turkey.
That is, they sat in the same room, and we are talking about negotiations in Istanbul. This was primarily a humanitarian track. And it proved its success. Ukraine was able to return both prisoners and the bodies of the dead, and was able to return the children stolen by Russia. This is important for the Ukrainian state, because Ukraine advocates for our people, whether they are alive or not, to be returned.
"Coalition of the Willing"
Another important aspect is the creation of the "Coalition of the Willing" format this year.
Of course, I cannot but mention the creation of the "Coalition of the Willing" format in March. This is a format that supports us, especially in the context of negotiations on a peaceful settlement. We see that it has proven itself well, but it is still unclear what exactly Europe can give Ukraine in terms of security guarantees.
He emphasized that a series of meetings in various formats are expected to take place at the beginning of January next year, so the issue of security guarantees remains dynamic.
At the same time, we see that Europe supports us.
90 billion euros to Ukraine from the EU
Another important political news for Ukraine was the allocation of 90 billion euros in financial support from the EU for the next two years.
If we talk about the European Union in general, the positive news was the provision of a loan of 90 billion euros to Ukraine for 2026-2027. This means that Ukraine has financial resources that can be directed, in particular, to the defense sector and state security. This makes it possible to continue resisting Russian aggression. At the same time, these funds can be used to restore and support the Ukrainian economy, as well as to bring it out of crisis, if, for example, a peaceful settlement agreement is reached in 2026. For now, all this is dynamic, we do not know how it will be, but it is good that the funds were provided, because there were hopes that funding would come from frozen Russian assets, but this did not happen due to the lack of consensus among European partners.
PURL mechanism
As Zhelikhovsky noted, the PURL mechanism provides that European partners will buy weapons for Ukraine from the United States and transfer them for defense needs.
This is important because the Donald Trump administration is unwilling to transfer weapons to Ukraine for free, as it could have happened during the Joe Biden administration. At the same time, this means that Ukraine will not be left without American weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that without US support, Ukraine will not be able to withstand.
According to him, Europe, despite some positive changes, is not yet able to fully compensate for the volume of aid provided or being provided by the United States.
The expert also emphasizes that US support is critically important for Ukraine, and a positive signal is that Trump agreed to such a mechanism.
Elections in Poland, exhumation of victims of the Volyn tragedy
In June, the National Electoral Commission of Poland announced the victory of Karol Nawrocki in the presidential elections. He received the support of 51% of voters, ahead of Rafał Trzaskowski.
Zhelikhovsky notes that Nawrocki has more rigid views than his predecessor Andrzej Duda.
I think that in Ukraine there were hopes that the mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, a representative of the ruling camp led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, would win the presidential elections. If Rafał Trzaskowski had won, we could talk about a complete transfer of power to more liberal and moderate political forces, and not about a division of power with conservative forces. If we talk about the victory of Karol Nawrocki, then, despite his formal independence, he was supported by the Law and Justice party - a conservative political force that was in power but lost its levers of control after the 2023 parliamentary elections.
He emphasizes that many specific processes can now be observed in Poland, which have created a certain instability in the country.
The Ukrainian issue somehow appears and continues to appear in the Polish political discourse, but, fortunately, we do not see too many negative consequences for Ukraine. Moreover, President Zelensky visited Poland on December 19 and met with representatives of the country's political class, primarily with President Nawrocki. This meeting was long-awaited, and the leaders were able to outline a wide range of issues - security and energy. If we talk about historical aspects, in particular such sensitive issues as the Volyn tragedy, the parties agreed to continue cooperation, including on the exhumation of victims. Certain steps have already been taken recently.
The expert emphasized that the meeting of both presidents created a good basis for the implementation of joint projects.