Ukrainian Americans Say Trump's Ukraine Shift May Cost Republicans Votes in Midterms
Ahead of the 3 November US midterm elections, some Ukrainian American voters in Pennsylvania, including longtime Republicans, say they will vote against President Donald Trump's party over his turn against Ukraine. Voter sentiment is also shaped by the Iran war and tariffs.
In Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, retirees of Ukrainian descent gathered at a Ukrainian educational and cultural center have voiced anger at President Donald Trump's policy towards Ukraine. Some say they will vote against his Republican Party in the US midterm congressional elections on 3 November.
What worries the Ukrainian community
Irene Skulsky, a retired teacher, said her son Darko was driving to work in Kyiv recently when Russian drone missiles hit five cars directly ahead of him. There was no warning, which she linked to Washington's alleged decision to suspend intelligence sharing with Ukraine. The Trump administration denies halting the sharing, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country received no advance warning of two waves of Russian missile attacks.
In recent weeks Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy nearly 5 million tonnes of diesel, overriding US sanctions on Moscow. He also urged Ukrainians to replace their president, and his administration has been accused of restricting the Ukrainian military's access to Starlink satellite internet. Economists say the volume covered by the diesel deal is too small to affect prices.
Eugene Luciw of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, an advocacy group, considers foreign policy the top issue for Ukrainian American voters. He estimates that more than 75% of Trump's former supporters in the community have abandoned him. Peter Hewuka, a retired nuclear physicist and lifelong Republican, said he is likely to vote for a local Democrat.
About 60,000 people of Ukrainian descent live in the Philadelphia area, the second-largest such population in the US after New York.
Other factors in the vote
Voters' daily costs are more affected by the Iran war, which the US launched with Israel in February, and by tariffs. The war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz have pushed up oil prices, and according to an AP-NORC survey roughly 70% of respondents disapprove of Trump's handling of both the war and the economy.
