LIVE German 2025 Election Results

Ukrainian Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna took note of what she said was an improved relationship between Ukraine and the U.S., telling reporters Thursday that the “overall dynamics” have shifted. 

In just the past six weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has had two phone calls and three meetings with President Trump, including one earlier this week. Stefanishyna, who spoke at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, credited recent personnel shuffles at the State Department and White House, saying they have “helped the process.” 

Ukraine now provides “regular updates” about its military situation and has been able to combat what she characterized as a prior, erroneous narrative that Russia was winning the war, now in its fifth year. 

“Ukraine should be this success case for President Trump,” Stefanishyna said, noting the dramatic turnaround in relations since the contentious Oval Office meeting with Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February 2025. She said Kyiv has also begun building a case that Ukraine is a contributor to European security.

It has shifted its approach from seeking military, “political and moral support” from the U.S. to producing concrete “deliverables” for the Trump administration, including on defense industrial cooperation and Patriot missile system production, she said. Asked about the possibility of visits to Kyiv by envoys Steve Witkoff or Jared Kushner, she confirmed it had been raised in this week’s Oval Office meeting, though she declined to provide a date. “It might happen next week, it might happen later,” she said, also indicating both planned to travel to Moscow after Ukraine. 

She said Ukraine was putting much stock in reinvigorating diplomacy in order to reach a ceasefire before, as she put it, “the deadliest winter.” 

On air defenses, Stefanishyna noted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s presence at the Oval Office meeting and said while there had been no “firm commitments” for additional air defenses before winter, discussions are underway on long-term procurement deals and potential missile swaps with countries that already have contracts in place.

On Iran, Stefanishyna insisted Ukraine is not trying to connect the Mideast conflict with its war.

“There’s no policy line or any intention to make these processes interconnected,” she said, adding that a recent Ukrainian strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea was “unintentional” and quickly followed by diplomatic outreach because Kyiv was “not willing to escalate the situation.”

Stefanishyna also pointed to the Russian ballistic missile that reached Poland this week as evidence that the threat from Moscow extends beyond Ukraine. “We did our best to destroy this missile … but we were not successful,” she said.

Ukraine’s long-range attacks into Russia have been a “game-changer,” she said. 

“Russians saw the missiles in places Russia [has] never seen any missiles, like for centuries,” she said. “So this has a major effect to the people because they understand that the war is something that now really relates to them.”

Stefanishyna is hopeful that Congress will enact the bill Sen. Lindsey Graham was working on when he died this month, a measure that would impose new tariffs on those who buy oil from Russia and more sanctions. She predicted that if the Graham bill were signed into law within the next two to three months, it would have “a devastating effect” on Russia and disincentivize its enablers.

Plans to produce Patriot interceptors in Ukraine are progressing, she said, with current estimates ranging from “12 months to five years” — though Ukraine believes it can accelerate that timeline. Raytheon teams have already visited Ukraine, Lockheed Martin is seeking approvals to send technical personnel, and the White House requested a roadmap for establishing the capability after Zelenskyy and Mr. Trump met in Ankara a few weeks ago, she said.

The ambassador also embraced the attention generated by conservative activist Laura Loomer’s recent trip to Ukraine, calling it “impactful” and saying she hopes it prompts more conservative influencers to visit the country. She declined to comment on any involvement by the embassy in organizing the trip and did not offer any insight into how it came about or was financed.

In a lighter moment, she said Loomer’s stop at McDonald’s in Kyiv “was my recommendation” and said Zelenskyy had “fun” during their interview. 

Stefanishyna told reporters she chose to step down amid domestic political pressures and an ongoing asset-declaration investigation, though she added that Zelenskyy did not ask her to resign and wanted her to remain because negotiations over Patriot production and military support are at a critical stage. 

For a long time, big majorities of Americans have said their incomes are not keeping up with inflation, and they’ve continued to feel President Trump isn’t focused enough on it. Yet many aren’t seeing relief coming from either side of the aisle. 

Both parties are underwater on whether their policies are perceived as helping with the cost of living.

Americans are comparatively more critical of Republicans: A majority say GOP policies hurt, rather than help. 

This may be partly related to the president’s low ratings on inflation, since there is a lot of overlap between people who say this and who also think the president’s policies make them financially worse off.

While the Democrats do relatively better than Republicans, the Democrats’ “help” number is still only one-third and on balance, slightly net-negative compared to their “hurt” number.

 On economic policy more generally, things are even.

Trump and Republicans, considered together, have the slightest of edges on immigration policy over the Democrats among Americans. 

Both face some difficulties on this. The administration’s deportation program has slipped somewhat in approval during the course of the term, and that is strongly connected to these views. Favorable impressions are very much concentrated among the GOP base, and Republicans also give President Trump much higher ratings for his handling of immigration than for inflation.

Democrats face difficulties here in terms of perceived priorities, since they’re seen by many as not prioritizing the interests of longer-term citizens over more recent immigrants. 

Voting and election procedures

Americans’ views about U.S. election and voting procedures have changed little since Mr. Trump delivered his primetime address on elections earlier this month.

Confidence remains at the level it was — not any lower, not any higher.

There continues to be wide bipartisan support for requiring a photo ID to cast a ballot. 

But most see elections and voting as a local matter: A large majority of Americans want their own states, rather than the Trump administration, to have the final say in how elections are run. 

Overall, more voters would prefer the Democrats control Congress next year than the Republicans. This is fairly typical for the party out of the White House in a midterm, but once we get into the fall, we’ll start to get a clearer picture of how that generalized preference will translate into specific votes and play out against a narrow field of competitive contests.

This WTX US News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,193 U.S. adults interviewed between July 22-24, 2026. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.7 points. 

Toplines: