Many people in Ukraine are suspicious of Trumpian “peace”. There are good reasons for this. A visit to the front line and a place of mourning in the capital Kyiv.
Kyiv/Pokrovsk. The screech of tires. A massive SUV rumbles over the cracked asphalt. The road leads through a ghostly, empty city. The night paints the dilapidated high-rise buildings in a gloomy gray color. The engine of a car painted in camouflage colors howls. The driver accelerates to full throttle whenever the road allows. The tires screech on sharp curves. Four soldiers wearing helmets and protective vests squeeze into the seats, with jamming antennas bolted to the roof. They are designed to jam the radio waves that control Russian drones.
But the frequency has to match, – says Yaroslav, who is a drone pilot himself.
Death from a drone attack can come to Pokrovsk at any moment. For the Ukrainian soldiers defending the city. For the few remaining civilians. The burned cars on the roadsides also indicate the danger. There is no protection against drones, which are controlled through fiber optic cables. Yaroslav knows this all too well.
The wheels whiz over a railroad crossing. The men in the cab shake to the core. The car makes real jumps, then the headlights run along the concrete wall. After a few minutes, the car stops abruptly. The soldiers open the door, pull a massive drone out of the back and run it to the covered entrance of an abandoned apartment building. They do the same with a bundle of large batteries.
As soon as the last battery is taken out of the loading area and the door behind it is closed, the driver moves off. He quickly circles the building, the sound of the engine fading into the distance. Yaroslav (22), Anatoliy (44), and Dmytro (33) carry the drone and equipment into the building. They pass through a wall with hanging carpets to a shelter in the basement. A light bulb on the ceiling fills everything with dim light. Anatoliy, the male bear, lights the stove. The night shift begins.
Yaroslav disappears into the long basement of the block. It’s pitch black, with only an LED flashlight providing light. The 22-year-old is preparing grenades for today’s mission. A large transport drone is parked one floor up in the corridor of an abandoned apartment. It is equipped with a night vision device. Throughout the night, Yaroslav and his comrades will fly it to the fierce line of Ukrainian defenders, dropping food and coils of wire to them.
If the Russians try to move forward, we will throw grenades at them, – explains the young drone pilot.
On his body armor, you can see a badge with the US flag in camouflage colors. Trump’s so-called “peace initiative” is naturally a problem for soldiers. They have no right to express their political views in the presence of a journalist.
As long as the Americans support us, I won’t take off my badge either, – the soldier replies briefly. He does not trust Putin’s Russia. – They are not interested in real peace.
There are good reasons for his distrust. In 1994, Russia received Ukraine’s Soviet-era nuclear arsenal as part of the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia, in turn, provided Ukraine with far-reaching security guarantees.
In 2014, Russian troops invaded Donbas and Crimea, – the young man recalls.
No one in the Ukrainian army respects Russian promises. On August 29, 2014, 366 soldiers were killed under heavy fire when they tried to use the corridor near Ilovaisk, promised by the Russians to escape. This is still etched in the memory of the soldiers on the front line. Only a day before the large-scale invasion, Putin denied any intention of allowing his troops to attack a neighboring country.
And today? Human rights organizations report systematic torture in the Russian-occupied territories, and thousands of people are missing. Anyone who refuses to accept Russian citizenship loses access to schools, universities, and hospitals. Even property is not spared. Children and youth are subjected to military drills in schools.
I am defending my country here, – says a young man who volunteered for the army in 2022, shortly after the invasion began. – Only if we are strong can we save our freedom and independence. Only then will Putin take us seriously.
He misses his girlfriend. You can see them both on the screen saver on his smartphone. A young, happy couple. He does not believe that they will soon be able to enjoy a stable and lasting peace. Then comes the order to deploy. Yaroslav switches his headlamp to red mode and together with Dmytro takes the prepared drone outside the house. A few hundred meters away, they hear the roar of an explosion from a collision. They are in a hurry. Their movements are perfect.
It is a rainy day. Nevertheless, Anastasia came to the Maidan today. It is one of the saddest places in Kyiv. It is a huge sea of flags and banners. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, relatives stuck small Ukrainian flags into the green lawns at the edge of Independence Square. Each flag represented one or more of the dead. In three years, a few flags turned into thousands and thousands. A sea of flags and banners in the Ukrainian colors of blue and yellow. Men in military uniforms look at passersby from framed photographs and behind glass – fallen soldiers.
My father died at the front on March 12, 2023. Then I stuck a small flag in the ground approximately in this place, – the 18-year-old girl points to the spot near the sidewalk. – Now the flags are so close to each other that Anastasiia can no longer recognize where her father’s flag is.
But I know approximately. That’s why I often come here to think about him, – she explains. – Peace would be great – but without the occupation. My father always warned me that Russia wants to destroy us, Ukrainians, as a nation. He volunteered as soon as the invasion began. I am proud of him. But I miss him very much. I’m not really interested in politics. But it is clear to me that we all have to be firm now. My father would say the same thing.
She says that more men should join the army now, but “it means so much fear for your loved ones – that’s what war means”, the young woman says, and heads off to university.
Anna (55) and Oksana (35) had just arrived when Anastasia left. The two of them walk up the subway stairs. On the last steps they see a sea of flags. Anna came from western Ukraine. She came to visit.
Oh, my God. So many flags, – she says.
Then she starts to cry. Oksana quickly hugs her. Anna regains consciousness and is ready to answer the journalist’s questions.
This is a terrible time. Especially since Trump became President of the United States. Every day, there is another bad news story because of him, – says the 55-year-old woman.
Of course, she saw the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It was terrible. Trump’s disrespect, – Anna shakes her head in frustration.
It was a shock for all of us in Ukraine, – Oksana agrees.
Some people are trying to take it with humor. Meanwhile, the most ridiculous stories about Semensky’s visit to Trump are circulating on social media. Elon Musk is walking around the Oval Office with a chainsaw. Selensky shows a card trick. Opposite him, US Vice President James David Vance spits out hundreds of playing cards.
However, both women are not in the mood for fun.
It’s incredible how Trump is sucking up to Putin. Are the Americans even our partners? – Anna asks.
Now we can only hope for Europe, – Oksana is certain.
According to Anna, freezing the front will only give Russia the opportunity to continue arming itself unhindered.
Then there could be a much bigger war. Putin needs not only Ukraine, I just hope that the whole of Europe realizes this, – she explains.
We have two brothers in our neighborhood who died at the front, – Anna says. Then she turns around and points to the sea of flags.
All these brave people would have died in vain if there was peace, which is really a defeat, which does not give us any security, – Anna says. Oksana agrees.
Only really strong security guarantees and a united Europe will stop Putin, – she explains.
Then they both hurry out into the next downpour. The flags are left behind. Many of them read Pokrovsk, the front line where the soldier died.
Till Mayer (photo and text)
Journalist Till Mayer (www.tillmayer.de) has been documenting the war in eastern Ukraine since 2017. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, he has been regularly covering the consequences of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine for our editorial board. He has won several awards for his photography and reporting. His collection of reports “Europe’s Frontline – The War in Ukraine” was recently published by ibidem-Verlag and in Ukrainian by Dukh i Litera.
