From where Olena Boiko lives in Sumy, a Ukrainian city under relentless bombardment by Russia, the idea that President Donald Trump may be stepping back from his role trying to end the war in Ukraine was disappointing but hardly surprising.
Trump’s diplomatic effort was a “theatrical performance that has nothing to do with the reality of trenches or bomb shelters,” Boiko said on Tuesday.
She and her family, she said, had suffered immense losses and desperately wanted the war to end. “My daughters and I have lost the most precious things to this war — my husband, their father, and my childhood home, which was destroyed down to its foundation,” she said.
Trump took office declaring he could swiftly end the war. But after a phone call on Monday with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Trump suggested he was prepared to step back.
For many Ukrainians, the call was the last gasp of a chaotic process that few believed had any chance of success as long as Washington refused to pressure Moscow. And that means the devastating war will rage on. Trump did not appear to have demanded concessions from Russia or to have been offered any. He abandoned his call for an immediate ceasefire and said that only Ukraine and Russia could resolve their differences.
Although that caused disappointment in Ukraine, it could also mean reduced pressure. Trump has pressed Ukraine to essentially grant Russia all the territory it has gained in the war while offering Kyiv vague assurances.
The administration is also signalling that previously approved aid to Ukraine will continue and that it is helping to find additional air defences at the country’s request. Secretary of state Marco Rubio, in testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said it was “encouraging” its allies to supply air defence to Kyiv, though “none of these countries want to give up their Patriot systems, either.”
Liliia Zambrovska, 27, a pharmacist in the western Dnipro region, said Ukrainians were exhausted but had to carry on. They must find support from allies and do what they must for themselves, she said. “America and Russia are playing a dirty and bloody game,” she said. But Ukraine would fight on.