Ceasefire or capitulation
Ukrainians from skeptical donbass against Trump-Putine talks
A few kilometers from the front, the meeting in Alaska arouses little hope.
On the beach of Sloviansk, in the Donbass, a few tens of kilometers from the front line.
Louis Lemaire-Sicre/Hans Lucas
- Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are planning a meeting on August 15.
- Russia requires the Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbass as a condition to the ceasefire.
- The inhabitants of Sloviansk try to maintain a normal life despite the Russian advance.
The road is silent, almost frozen. Only a few military pickups, bristling with anti-meal antennas or protected by metal cages, cross it at high speed. Leaning against the aisle, Vitalii, fifties, hunting in hand, scrutinizes the sky of Ukraine. “Today is rather calm,” he slips, laconic. Around his neck, a drone detector oscillates gently.
Its mission: to protect a team responsible for stretching anti-line nets along the road T05, a vital axis of Ukrainian logistics in Donbass. For three months, this strategic artery has been regularly targeted by Russian drones. To cope with it, as on other roads in the region, the two armies began to deploy large nets above the road.
Along the logistics axes, teams of soldiers are rising to install anti-drone nets.
Louis Lemaire-Sicre/Hans Lucas
“It’s like a spider web,” explains Andriy, 52, one of the workers. “In impact, the drone explodes. Stuck in the net, he cannot reach his target and therefore cannot detonate. And even if it explodes, its load, about 200 grams, remains too far to damage a truck or a car. ”
In the distance, plumes of white and black smoke rise above the fields. In the Donetsk Oblast, the Russian army continues its summer offensive. Around Kostiiantynivka and Pokrovsk, the pressure is tightened. Sub-equipped, Ukrainian forces resist, but slowly retreat.
What exchange of territories for a ceasefire?
The White House announced a meeting on August 15 Between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putinafter the visit of the American emissary Steve Witkoff in Moscow. According to the “Wall Street Journal”, Russia would make, as a prerequisite for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk Oblast areas which it occupies at almost 75%, as well as the last villages of the Louhansk Oblast under kyiv control.
During a speech, Donald Trump hinted that a exchange of territories could be part of the agreement: “We will return territories and we will exchange it.” He did not specify what regions were affected. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, dismissed from this meeting, recalled that the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits any transfer of territory.
Vitalii remains indifferent to international negotiations. His unique priority: to carry out the installation of these anti-drone nets, whether there is a cease-fire or not. “The Russians will never stop war. On the other hand, a ceasefire would allow us to rest and improve our fortifications… ”
Russia is trying to save time “It is Putin’s technique: to ignore the ultimatum of Donald Trump, to advance an initiative of another nature to which Trump could subscribe and thus save time”, analyzes Vitalii Portnikov, journalist and Ukrainian political analyst.
Unimaginable removal in Ukraine
According to him, the Kremlin already used this method last May, when Europeans, American and Ukrainians had agreed to send a Ultimatum in Vladimir Putin Regarding a ceasefire, accompanied by possible sanctions. “To avoid this ultimatum, Putin had reopened negotiations in Istanbul … which led to nothing,” he continues. We relive exactly the same scenario: Putin defuses Trump’s ultimatum. ”
Behind this maneuver, Moscow, according to him, has not abandoned his maximalist vision. “Forcing Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk’s oblast, hoping that Moscow renounces Kherson or Zaporijia would be, he said, completely illusory.” These regions constitute both springboards for future offensives, a terrestrial corridor towards occupied Crimea and a much more reliable logistics route than the Kerch bridge.
The T05 covered with anti-drone nets.
Louis Lemaire-Sicre/Hans Lucas
A military expert, questioned separately, underlines that requiring a Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbass as a prerequisite for peace would place kyiv in a disastrous military situation: “Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, but especially Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are the last ramparts of the region. Behind, there is only the steppe. “
Ukrainians have invested considerable means in their defense lines and their trenches. “Giving the rest of Donetsk would also weaken Kharkiv’s front, which could be attacked,” he warns.
In summary, for kyiv, Russian demand is equivalent to a strategic capitulation even before any peace negotiation, and without any guarantee that the war stops. “The Russians will continue to attack, and Ukraine knows,” concludes Portnikov. His strategy aims to save time on American sanctions, while having the failure of talks on Volodymyr Zelensky: “Look, Zelensky does not want peace. We, Russia, want it. “
The fear of fleeing the Donbass
20 kilometers from the front, in the waves of turquoise water, soldiers rest, among the residents of the surrounding villages, on the edge of the Sloviansk salt lakes (Oblast de Donetsk). Soldiers, families and refugees returned for a weekend try to rest in it.
Originally from Sloviansk, Maria, dancer and sports coach, has lived in kyiv since 2022. She returns regularly to see her mother. But the return to his hometown keeps a bitter taste each time. She doesn’t really know what to think about the meeting of Trump and Putin. “I don’t think it can happen. On what basis could we bring them together? “
“My mother said to me: Come before fall, because afterwards, it will be worse. I hope this will not be the case, but everything seems to go in this direction. It may be necessary to make it go to kyiv. ”
Maria Kulishava: “My mother said to me: Come before fall, because afterwards, it will be worse.”
Louis Lemaire-Sicre/Hans Lucas.
This is refused to consider Alina and Oleksandra, respectively 35 and 37 years old. Originally from Kramatorsk, a neighboring town of Sloviansk, they came by the lake with their children. “With all the bombings, the drones and our husbands who are fighting, it feels good to come by the water, to think of nothing.”
For the moment, the two women are not planning to flee the region. But, reluctantly, Oleksandra recognizes that the idea is gradually making its way. “We know that it is enough that the Russians are ten kilometers for the city to become uninhabitable. For the moment, there are only twenty. ”
She marks a break, looks at her son to run near the water and hugs her youngest against her. “I don’t think it’s our last summer here. It’s been so long since we predict it … I don’t even pay attention anymore. »»
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