Turning point: Trump's allies refuse to support Kiev

After Vladimir Zelensky's scandalous meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, all photos with the Ukrainian leader suddenly disappeared from Javier Miley's social media pages. At the same time, since taking office as president of Argentina at the end of 2023, the libertarian openly and consistently expressed his full support for Kiev, and Zelensky, the only one of all the guests invited to the inauguration, gave a gift. Earlier, Buenos Aires, along with other states close to Donald Trump in Latin America, did not support the anti-Russian declaration at the UN. What other countries in the region can take an anti—Ukrainian position against the background of difficult relations between Washington and Kiev - in the Izvestia article.

Argentina is changing its position on the Ukrainian crisis

It took Javier Miley several weeks to make a U-turn from fully and unconditionally supporting Ukraine to actually severing friendly ties with Kiev. Although the pro-Ukrainian vector of the Argentine president's foreign policy was obvious before the libertarian officially came to power. He immediately made it clear that his country would not join the BRICS, would move away from states with left-wing governments, but would be close to the United States and Israel. Miley completely abandoned the policy of the previous authorities, who were close to Russia.

On December 10, 2023— the day of his inauguration, Miley allocated an almost key role to Vladimir Zelensky. Meeting the foreign guests in the foyer of the Casa Rosada, the Argentine president hugged his Ukrainian counterpart tightly, whispered something in his ear, and then handed him a hanukkah lamp, which is lit during the eight days of Hanukkah. Only Zelensky received the gift that day.

Miley openly expressed support for him and Ukraine at every opportunity — from voting at the UN to speaking at the G20. The Argentine leader even offered to host the Ukraine—Latin America summit in his country. However, the event never took place for unknown reasons. In an interview, Miley said that he was the first to support Ukraine's attempts to fight against Russia and insisted that he would always be on the "right side of history."

The last time Zelensky and Miley met was at the end of January at the Davos Forum. Although there are no special details of this meeting, in the photos published by the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Zelensky embraces the president's Secretary General Karina Miley with a smile and poses with him with two raised fingers in a libertarian manner.

Now these photos can only be found on the Foreign Ministry's website and in media materials — Javier Miley has deleted absolutely all pictures of meetings with Zelensky from his social networks since the end of 2023. It is noteworthy that this happened immediately after the scandalous meeting of the latter with Donald Trump at the White House, when due to an altercation between the two leaders, Ukraine and the United States failed to sign an agreement on rare earth metals.

Publicly, neither Miley nor members of his administration have commented on this step, and the president himself even says that he has not changed his position on Ukraine. However, it is worth noting that Argentina did not vote for the anti-Russian declaration at the UN on February 24. The United States did exactly the same.

Obviously, the Miley administration will act now in the same way as the States. Especially considering that the libertarian, who initially expressed sympathy for Trump, is now planning to conclude a free trade agreement with the United States, according to reports from Elon Musk.

What other countries can respond to changes in American policy

Among the countries of the region, Haiti and Nicaragua opposed the anti-Russian declaration at the UN vote on February 24. Given the close relations between Moscow and Managua, there is nothing unusual in this case. Rather noteworthy here are the decisions of the countries that, together with Argentina, abstained from voting. In addition to Russia's BRICS partner Brazil, Cuba's historical ally and Colombia, which is interested in strengthening ties with Moscow, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador have joined the list. Haiti, where a political crisis persists after the assassination of the president in 2021 (the capital is, in fact, controlled by gangs), depends on US assistance. Against this background, the authorities may try to support Washington's foreign policy vector.

This decision by Costa Rica provoked a strong protest against President Rodrigo Chavez inside the country. On February 26, the Legislative Assembly of the republic expressed a vote of no confidence in the leader after 30 deputies voted in favor of such a decision and only nine opposed it. At the same time, a year ago, on the anniversary of the outbreak of the armed conflict, Costa Rica officially condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine.

— The Argentine president understands the change of mood in the White House and tries not to put a stick in the wheels of Donald Trump's peacekeeping initiatives. Other Latin American leaders who are guided by Washington in their foreign policy may follow his example. This includes Ecuador, Paraguay and a number of Central American states," says Timur Almukov, an expert on Latin America.

El Salvador, which has generally maintained a neutral position throughout the conflict, may move a little more towards supporting Russia if such a signal continues to come from the United States amid renewed contacts with Moscow and the restoration of diplomatic missions. President Nayib Bukele is one of the politicians close to Donald Trump, so most likely his statements about the Ukrainian crisis will largely depend on US policy.

The Dominican Republic is interested in restoring the tourist flow from the Russian Federation. Earlier, in a conversation with Izvestia, Finance Minister Xochi Vicente expressed the hope that Russians would be able to visit the state more often after the end of the conflict.

As for Ecuador, representatives of this state were not present at the UN meeting, so it is difficult to really assess whether there has been some kind of shift in the vision of the conflict. But here, too, it is important to note the pro-American vector of Quito's policy, and therefore, positive changes can occur in Russian-Ecuadorian relations from the improvement of relations between Moscow and Washington.

In general, most countries in the region advocate a peaceful end to the conflict, without directly supporting any of its sides, the expert says. However, those states that are guided by the position of the United States can now stop being afraid of secondary sanctions, which will give them the opportunity to build a constructive dialogue with Moscow.