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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After nearly three years of living under constant threat of Russian airstrikes while their troops fight a grinding campaign against Russia’s invasion, many Ukrainians long for an end to the war — but now fear it could come on unfavorable terms.
Top U.S. and Russian officials plan to meet Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss an end to the war — without Kyiv’s participation — rankling some Ukrainians who worry they will be sidelined.
“We are being destroyed, Ukraine is suffering, Ukraine is fighting. And our president does not participate?” Lidiia Odyntsova, 71, said with disbelief of the upcoming talks. “We are the victims. We should play first fiddle in these talks.”
Standing with tears in her eyes beside a snow-covered memorial to fallen Ukrainian soldiers in central Kyiv, she said: “I will not forgive them! I will never forgive!“
While Ukraine will not take part in Tuesday’s talks, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said any actual peace negotiations would only take place with Ukraine’s involvement.
Still, many Ukrainians are watching a barrage of developments from the United States with apprehension. Ukrainian social media has been flooded with posts reflecting deep unease, and many remain anxiously glued to their phones for updates.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week sent shockwaves across both sides of the Atlantic after he agreed by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin negotiations — abruptly upending a longstanding U.S.-led effort to isolate Moscow over its invasion. That came the same day that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia, signaling a view of a potential settlement that is remarkably close to Moscow’s.
Ukraine, which has been slowly losing ground to Russia’s larger army, was already facing a difficult negotiating position, and Hegseth’s comments poured cold water on two key Ukrainian aspirations. While support for an end to the fighting among the country’s war-wearied population is widespread, there remains broad agreement that it must not come at the expense of those living in territories occupied by Russia or at the risk of future incursions by Moscow.
Speaking to Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff didn’t directly respond to a question about whether Ukraine would have to give up a “significant portion” of its territory. “Those are details, and I’m not dismissive of the details, they’re important. But I think the beginning here is trust-building,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed the upcoming talks, saying they would “yield no results” given the absence of Ukrainian officials.
Valerii Semenii, a 59-year-old fighting with Ukraine’s armed forces, meanwhile, said he feared the worst.
“Trump is marching towards a world war, because the aggressor cannot be pacified,” Semenii said. “He does not know history, because maybe today you will pacify (Putin), but tomorrow it will provoke a world war. There is nothing else I can say about these negotiations.”
That sentiment reflected fears by many in Ukraine’s government and population that bringing an end to the fighting without building a lasting security infrastructure to prevent any future Russian aggression would allow Moscow time to regroup and launch future attacks, both in Ukraine and the wider region.
“We have to understand that Russia is a danger not only for Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Shyrshyn, a battalion commander fighting in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainians troops have occupied some territory but suffered heavy losses. European countries “have to have a part in this negotiation as well because, as we see, all Europe is afraid of Russia and they don’t want the same scenario that we have.”
Shyrshyn said he thought both of Ukraine’s major goals — the restoration of its Russian-occupied territories and membership in the NATO military alliance — would be attainable if the Trump administration “would support us with all their power.”
“If the USA is not willing to support us, we will have more deaths, more losses,” he said, “but we will continue to fight, because it’s a question of our existence.”
___Associated Press journalists Hanna Arhirova, Volodymyr Yurchuk and Yehor Konovalov contributed.
