US President Donald Trump may say that he believes that Russia and Ukraine can achieve a peace agreement, but he has a long way to sell such an opportunity to the Ukrainians.
“It really looks like they want to hand over Ukraine because I don’t see any advantages for our country from these negotiations or Trump’s rhetoric,” Myroslava Lesko, a 23-year-old manager in Kyiv, told Reuters.
Trump revealed this week that he had spoken to the Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed the prospect of ending the all-out war in Ukraine. He then spoke to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the same topic.
The US President also said that he had instructed his officials to start talks about the end of the war. In the middle of the ambiguity as to whether such conversations would affect Ukraine, Trump said on Thursday: “You are part of it.”
Trump’s decision to speak to Putin and entertaining Ukraine was in Ukraine, which the US politics does, and was criticized by European leaders – including those in Ukraine.
After US President Donald Trump asked whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be an equal partner in peace talks with Russia, Defense Minister from NATO countries, including Canada’s Bill Blair, said that there should be no discussion about the Ukrainian area without Ukraine.
Zelenskyy had tried to get forward with Trump in front of Putin. But that didn’t happen, and now Ukraine has to do its case.
Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian legislator and chairman of the Verghovna Rada committee committee, said it was “much better” if the US president had had his conversations in reverse order.
“It would make more sense because it is Ukraine that is the victim of Russian aggression,” Merezhko told Kyiv to CBC News.
No details, even no comfort
Merezhko said Trump seems to have political reasons to end the conflict, but it also seemed as if the US leader had learned a lot about the war and its causes.
“He has the desire to bring Ukraine peace, but he doesn’t seem to … ((have) have concrete details what is important”.
On the streets of Kyiv, the residents, who spoke with Reuters, did not show much consolation in the details that are missing, which Trump wants to see with the future of her country.
Engineer Hryhoryi Buhoyets, 60, said Trump was a different political animal than his predecessor Joe Biden.
“But on the other hand, he can put pressure on people,” said Buhoyets on Thursday. “Some say he may have backup plans, but these plans will not benefit Ukraine. The type of Ukraine that we would like to have.”
Biden was in office when Russia initiated his complete invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. His government was a strong supporter of the fight against the invaders of Ukraine.
Under Trump, the officers have blurred the conflict and claim to be considered, to meet Russia with sanctions and tariffs, and at the same time declares that it is unrealistic for Ukraine to regain the country occupied by Russian armed forces.
Trump’s White House also tried to quickly find the conditions for a deal in which Ukraine would take its rare resources with the United States to quickly arrange, in exchange for continued support and security guarantees.
Angelica Tkachuk, a 29-year-old office worker, told her that “his plans are to rob Ukraine as much as possible.
The view outside of Ukraine
Observers outside of Ukraine have also expressed their own concerns about what Trump suggests – and this also includes negotiation with Putin and the assumption that he will carry out the conditions of an impending agreement.
“I don’t trust Putin Putin a customs and without any form of mechanism (to prevent further aggression) … he will be back”. “He will restore and he will be back.”
With regard to the negotiation with Putin, Trump was asked in the White House on Thursday whether he trusted his Russian colleague.
“I think he would like to happen something. I trust him on this topic,” said Trump.
In almost three years of the entire war, Russian armed forces beat the Ukrainian cities and cities as well as an important infrastructure with a number of artillery, drones, sliding bombs and rockets. The war killed more than 12,000 civilians in Ukraine by the end of 2024.
However, Ukraine also brought conflict to Russia – also by seizing a part of the Kurskoblast last August. The Ukrainian commands of the Oleksandr Syrskyi army said on Thursday that Ukraine still holds 500 square kilometers of course.
But the Kremlin seems cool for the possibility of exchanging a Russian country for parts of Kursk under Ukrainian control.
“It is impossible,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday. “Russia never discussed the exchange of its territory and will not discuss.”
