Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Donald Trump’s “peace through strength approach” to global relations could help end Russia’s war on his country.

“This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday on social media platform X, congratulating Trump on an “impressive” victory in the U.S. presidential election before it was formally declared. “I am hopeful that we will put it into action together.”

Zelenskyy’s swift embrace of Trump’s “decisive leadership” underlined the challenges facing Ukraine as the Republican contender prepares to return to the White House. Trump has said he’ll reach out to Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring a quick end to the war, raising fears in Kyiv that Ukraine may be pushed into a settlement that would freeze the conflict, allowing the Kremlin time to re-arm and renew its assault.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine relies on “continued strong bipartisan support” from the U.S. and that he wanted to discuss with Trump ways to strengthen their “strategic partnership.”

The Ukrainian leader’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, echoed Zelenskyy’s comments in a message on Telegram, saying that “Russia and autocrats only understand the language of power.”

Ukraine’s dollar bonds jumped as Trump’s pledges to accelerate an end to the war came into focus. The country’s GDP warrants, a kind of debt security with payouts linked to economic growth, traded above 73 cents on the dollar, their highest levels since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Trump has voiced skepticism about the scale of U.S. military aid for Ukraine, while also blaming incumbent President Joe Biden for the outbreak of the war that Putin started. He told a campaign rally in September that “we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy.”

In July, Zelenskyy challenged Trump to present his touted plan for ending the war quickly — and warned that any proposal must avoid violating the nation’s sovereignty. “If Trump knows how to finish this war, he should tell us today,” Zelenskyy told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Kyiv.

Trump downplayed tensions with Zelenskyy over the war when the two men met in New York in September, saying “we both want to see this end and we both want to see a fair deal made.”

The Republican leader has also repeatedly expressed admiration for Putin and claims to have a good relationship with the Kremlin leader. In an Oct. 15 interview with Bloomberg News, Trump said “If I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Reaction in Kyiv to Trump’s impending return was restrained. Lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said his win and Republican control of the U.S. Congress presented “huge challenges and huge hope.”

Former lawmaker Hryhoriy Shverk said the U.S. had turned red “whether from fear or shame,” a reference to the shift to the Republican Party.

“I am very skeptical that the war will end quickly, in 24 hours, as Trump promised,” said Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former Ukrainian economy minister who’s now president of the Kyiv School of Economics. “It definitely won’t be boring.”

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—With assistance from Volodymyr Verbianyi.

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