Exhausted by war, the Ukrainians fear that Trump and Putin agree an unfair peace without Kyiv

Training is not especially sophisticated: they defend themselves with a shotgun. The soldiers perform exercises to shoot whites that move quickly, first from the ground and then in motion.

Ihor, the experienced training instructor, tells them that the shotgun is currently the most effective means to bring down a short distance drone.

Ihor has been fighting on the Eastern Front of Ukraine since 2014, the year in which Russia was illegally annexed and sent troops to the Donbás region. Your call indicative is “The Knifer“. Also train troops in melee combat.

Ihor has been trying to stop the Russian advance for ten years. The skin bristles any suggestion that Ukraine has to give territory as part of any “land exchange.”

“Neither I nor my colleagues are prepared for this,” he tells me. He states that they prefer to continue fighting until “we will free our territories.”

That does not seem like a possibility, since some units of the Ukrainian front are well below the necessary number of troops. A soldier told us that the renewed efforts to mobilize more troops had been a “disaster.”

They know that they are still surpassed by the Russians in number of troops and in armament.

Ukrainian troops also admit that they are tired and that they are losing ground. It is an undeniable fact.

But this training shows that they do not give up.

Oleksii, one of the soldiers who perfects his skill with the shotgun, says he has already lost his father and his friends in the war.

He admits that “war must stop one way or another.”

But when it is suggested that more Ukrainian territory be given to Russia says: “It would not be my suggestion, I do not like this idea.”

Ukrainian troops point out that Russia is also suffering great losses. With around 1,000 casualties – warm or injured – every day, Russia's resources are also depleted little by little.

Front views are reflected in the towns and cities of Ukraine. The civilian population is also suffering the consequences of this war in a more direct way, especially with the recent intensification of Russian attacks with missiles and planes unmanned throughout the country. and

Last month Russia launched more than 6,000 drones against Ukraine. In July 2024 that figure was much lower: about 400.

In the streets of the capital, Kiyv, many want the war to end. “If we don't stop, we will lose even more territory and people,” says Oleksandr.

Use the game analogy in a casino: “The more you play, the more you lose.”

Volodymyr, another passerby, is pessimistic about the perspectives of the conversations between Presidents Trump and Putin.

He believes that Ukraine will probably have to give up more territory in exchange for a high fire. “We have no resources,” he adds. “All our boys are in heaven or hospital.”

President Zelensky has already expressed his frustration due to the fact that the voice of Ukraine is not heard in Alaska.

He has also made it clear that he will not yield Ukrainian territory. “It's not my private property,” he said earlier this week.

But some recent surveys suggest that more and more Ukrainians resign to have to sacrifice territory in exchange for peace.

The truth is that few believe that Russia really wants peace.

Oleksandr Merezhko, deputy and president of the Foreign Affairs Commission of Ukraine, believes that Alaska's meeting is nothing more than a public relations maneuver of President Putin.

“Putin has no desire to reach a commitment,” says Merezhko. “He thinks he is winning the war. He will not turn back.”

Merezhko also rejects President Trump's suggestion that Ukraine will have to “sign something.”

“Absolutely not,” he says. “I don't think any agreement can be imposed on Ukraine that leads to our destruction.” He assures that it is moral and legally incorrect sacrifice people's homes for peace.

But many Ukrainians have already lost their homes and lives.

According to the UN, more than 13,000 civilians have died in the country, while 3.5 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes.

More than 500 of those displaced now live in a provisional village, on the outskirts of the capital. His new homes are metal containers, instead of bricks and mortar.

Many are elderly who fled the fighting in the east. There is a small playground for children who will probably never see the cities and towns in which they were born. His old houses are now in occupied territory.

The face of Hennadii, 78, is filled with tears when he tells me that he does not believe he will see his mother's tomb again. He tells me that he still misses what he had to leave behind.

“I liked fishing there, I had a small plot of land, my grapes and my walnut,” he says. “And now there is no longer.”

None of the people we are talking about here expresses a lot of confidence in the conversations between Presidents Trump and Putin.

“I really hope something good about those conversations comes out, but I don't have very hopeful,” says Valeria, a 18 -year -old student whose family lost his home.

But Valentina, 78, is more challenging. A Russian missile killed her husband.

“This is our land and our people die for it,” he says. “How are we going to give up her?”

In Alaska the presidents Trump and Putin will talk about the future of Ukraine, without Ukrainian representation and above their possibilities.

Ukraine may be gradually losing this war, but it has not yet been defeated. That makes it more difficult for any other to force a peace that you cannot accept.

Información adicional de firle davies, anastasiia levchenko y mariana matveichuk

This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence tool for translation, As part of a pilot program.

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