POLITICAL REALISM IN THE UNITED STATES AS AN IDEOLOGY OF DENIAL OF SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE DURING THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

DOI 10.17721/2521-1706.2025.20.4

Oleksandr Potiekhin,

Dr. habil. (History), Senior Research Fellow, Major Research Fellow, State Institution «Institute of World History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine», Kyiv, Ukraine

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1856-2672

Abstract. The article examines the role of political realism in U.S. debates on support for Ukraine during Russia’s war of aggression, outlining the key realist narratives that frame opposition to assistance to Kyiv.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the views of American authors who identify themselves as political realists and to assess the internal coherence and empirical validity of their arguments, which portray support for Ukraine as contrary to U.S. national interests. In doing so, the article distinguishes between more ‘respectable’ realist claims circulating in Washington and explicitly propagandistic positions, and clarifies how these arguments translate into policy prescriptions.

The methodological framework of the study is based on a combination of historiographical analysis and the comparative method. Historiographical analysis made it possible to evaluate the works produced by American political realists who examine U.S. policy toward Ukraine during the Russian-Ukrainian War. The comparative method is applied to determine the extent to which the policies of the Trump administration conformed to the core assumptions and dogmas of political realism.

Scientific novelty. For the first time in Ukrainian historiography, a comprehensive analysis of the views of American authors who deny the necessity of providing aid to Ukraine during Russian aggression is conducted.

Conclusions. Opponents of assistance to Ukraine during Russia’s aggression identify themselves as political realists. An analysis of their positions – ranging from apologists of so-called ‘Russian greatness’ to neo-isolationists – reveals a shared inability to perceive international realities, as well as a fundamental mismatch between artificially constructed dogmatic frameworks and the realities of the modern world. At the same time, it would be analytically inaccurate to classify all self-identified realists (as opposed to idealists) as ‘enemies of Ukraine’. A conditional category of ‘pro-Ukrainian’ realists may be identified as followers of the Brzezinski line. However, such figures were absent both within the Trump administration and among its MAGA supporters. In U.S. policy toward the Russian-Ukrainian war, Donald Trump positioned himself as a ‘Neanderthal’ political realist, whose approach reflected a simplified and reductionist interpretation of realism.

Key words: United States, political realism, Trump administration, Russian-Ukrainian war.

Submitted: 12.09.2025

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