Vitalii is not tender with Donald Trump: the American president is an “incompetent who changes his mind every day,” said this Ukrainian soldier, the day after a crucial meeting with the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to find a way out of the war in Ukraine.
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Standing in the streets of Kramatorsk, not far from the front, the soldier who fights in the east of the country describes this meeting at the top as “a conversation between a reasonable and intelligent person and idiots”, in reference to the American administration, judging that the discussions will not lead anywhere.
Four days earlier, Donald Trump met his Russian counterpart in Alaska Vladimir Putin in Alaska, described as the big winner of this diplomatic game.
After this summit, the comments of the American administration seemed to go in the direction of Moscow, demanding from kyiv territorial concessions which she immediately rejected.
The meeting on Monday between MM. Zelensky and Trump in Washington aroused the hope of an advance in peace talks, according to the European partners of Ukraine who came to block the Ukrainian leader.
Washington is committed to granting security guarantees to Ukraine, without giving details.
And the possibility of a bilateral meeting requested by kyiv between MM. Zelensky and Putin, despite the latter’s reluctance, seems closer than ever.
But Vitalii is opposed, believing that nothing “constructive” will come out.
“We must not meet an international criminal,” says this 45 -year -old soldier, speaking of Vladimir Putin.
“He violated all the agreements he had signed, so we cannot trust him,” he added, referring to the Budapest memorandum.
In this 1994 treaty, signed after the fall of the USSR, Ukraine had agreed to hand over to Russia the Soviet nuclear weapons stored on its territory, in exchange for respect for its borders.
“I believe that if our generation does not stop Russia, our children will have to fight, and we do not want this,” concludes Vitali.
Bombings “before, during and after”
In the aftermath of the Washington meeting, the Western allies of kyiv said they wanted to formalize “within ten days” the security guarantees for Ukraine in order to prevent any new Russian attack on this country in the event of a peace agreement with Moscow, according to the Ukrainian president.
Sergiï Davydenko, 51 also assures that prudence is in order to sign a possible peace treaty with Russia.
“Many agreements have been signed, none has been respected,” warns this civilian from Kostiantynivka, a few kilometers from the front line above which the Russian drones fly daily.
However, he estimates the chances of “50-50” for Monday’s meeting between MM. Trump and Zelensky leads to an agreement, and prefers to “wait to see how things are going”.
In the streets of Kyiv, Anna, who did not give her family name, would also like to believe in a possible advance towards peace after these discussions.
But Russia “bombed us before, now, and after the meeting”.
She does not think that Donald Trump can be of any help, because he “also cooperates with Russia,” said the 60 -year -old cleaning lady.
If Volodar Velykodniy, 21, is also a circumspect regarding a “real impact” of these discussions, he still sees it as positive concerning “public relations”.
“We simply reminded Western society the existence of our country, the fact that we are at war, so that it does not forget us,” he says.
Ostap Shavel, a wrestler and 32 -year -old actor from western Ukraine, fears that war could last “decades”.
“Even if there is a kind of frost of the conflict, sooner or later, it will resume,” he concludes, dark.
