KRAMATORSK, Ukraine—U.S. President Donald Trump’s current flurry of statements about Ukraine has made its approach to the snow-covered trenches within the nation’s east, the place exhausted Ukrainian troops have been keeping off Russian assaults for greater than a 12 months.
Trump has demanded that Kyiv hand over $500 billion of rare-earth minerals to america for continued help and recommended that Ukraine “may be Russian someday.” On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an unprecedented meeting with Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia.
“Everyone seems to be speaking about [Trump’s comments], in fact,” stated Serhii, a employees sergeant of the one hundred and fifteenth Mechanized Brigade resting in an not easily seen home on the outskirts of Lyman, a bombed-out metropolis seven miles from the Russian troops’ first positions. Like different troopers who spoke to International Coverage this month, Serhii agreed to speak on the situation that solely his first identify be used, consistent with Ukrainian navy protocol.
“I nonetheless assume there’s a very good probability that this sizzling section will probably be adopted by a extra quiet section. However look, for us, it’s vital to not assume an excessive amount of about this, in any other case we’ll begin making errors,” Serhii stated.
Left: Serhii, a employees sergeant in a reconnaissance unit of the one hundred and fifteenth brigade, sits for a portrait in Lyman on Feb. 7. Proper: Weapons and a gasoline masks in a room of a home occupied by troopers in Lyman on Feb. 7.
A month into Trump’s second time period, Ukraine is watching with rising anxiousness as america appears to be like set to start talks with Russia over the warfare. On Feb. 12, Trump hailed what he described as a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, throughout which the 2 leaders reportedly agreed to fulfill quickly.
A call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instantly afterward didn’t assuage Kyiv’s fears about being sidelined from potential negotiations. The identical day, U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth called for allies to “[recognize] that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic goal,” whereas dismissing the potential of NATO membership for the nation.
This week’s talks between Rubio and Lavrov solely bolstered fears in Kyiv that Ukraine may very well be excluded from deliberations over its future, a worry that went into overdrive when Trump on Wednesday released a statement describing Zelensky as a “dictator with out elections,” calling on Ukraine’s president to “transfer quick or he’s not going to have a rustic left.”
The Alley of Invincible Heroes in Sloviansk, Ukraine, portraying troopers from the area who died combating within the Russia-Ukraine warfare, on Feb. 8.
“Within the meantime, we’re efficiently negotiating an finish to the warfare with Russia,” Trump added.
Nearer to the entrance line, the prospect has turn into a supply of each anguish and hope in current weeks. “All wars finish with negotiations,” stated Oleksandr, the 32-year-old commander of a small reconnaissance unit of the one hundred and fifteenth brigade. “However issues are going to be troublesome, as a result of we don’t perceive what is going on on the political facet. The Russians are going to push, and we don’t know what Trump needs, what he needs from Ukraine, what Ukraine needs. We simply know the Russians will preserve going in the event that they need to preserve going.”
“However somebody wants to consider Ukraine, as a result of we’re working out of males. [Russia has] 140 million individuals, and we are able to’t kill all of them,” Oleksandr added.
Greater than a 12 months of a sustained Russian offensive on the entrance line has drained understaffed Ukrainian brigades. Partly to offset the shortage of manpower, each armies now make extensive use of drones in each reconnaissance and strike roles. “Drones are nice when the climate’s good,” stated Oleksandr. “But when there’s wind, rain, snow, if it’s too chilly, drones can’t fly. In any case, you all the time want males, ideally in coordination with drones. However within the infantry brigades, scouts are already a dying breed. … This can be a particular job; not everybody needs to do it.”
“It’s clear the warfare has turn into extra technological,” stated Volodya, a 35-year-old navy surgeon who spoke from a medical outpost arrange within the basement of {a partially} destroyed constructing in Lyman. “Fewer individuals on the entrance line, and extra emphasis on drones to cease enemy assaults.”
The medical employees and volunteers at a navy medical stabilization level in Lyman discuss on Feb. 7.
Because it started three years in the past, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has brought about large casualties for Moscow. A minimum of 172,000 Russian troops could have died since 2022, and 2024 was the deadliest 12 months of the warfare, in accordance with a recent report by the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research. Russia’s advances slowed down in current weeks, with Ukrainian forces even launching small-scale counterattacks in a number of areas of the entrance line.
Regardless of its heavy losses, during the last a number of months the Russian navy managed to achieve the outskirts of Pokrovsk, the final main metropolis beneath Ukrainian management within the southern Donbas, and to seize the southern city of Velyka Novosilka.
In Kramatorsk, the capital of Ukrainian-controlled Donbas about 20 miles south of Lyman, locals watch because the entrance line creeps nearer. Russian forces slowly superior into the defensive Ukrainian stronghold of Chasiv Yar, round 15 miles east of Kramatorsk, after weeks of brutal road combating. The commercial metropolis and the neighboring city of Sloviansk at the moment are usually rocked by explosions. On Feb. 9, a 500-kilogram Russian gliding bomb struck a residential district in Kramatorsk, killing one individual and injuring 12 extra. 4 days later, two highly effective guided bombs hit the city, killing one individual.
The war-scarred buildings of Lyman on Feb. 7.
Now a garrison metropolis crisscrossed every day by a whole lot of navy autos heading to or from the entrance line, 80,000 civilians nonetheless dwell in Kramatorsk—down from a inhabitants of about 160,000 earlier than the Russian invasion.
“It’s already an open statistic {that a} important a part of the inhabitants needs a cease-fire now,” stated Volodymyr Ivanenko, the top of Metropolis Hospital No. 1 in close by Sloviansk. “If the capturing doesn’t cease, missiles will preserve hitting us, factories and companies received’t come again. It is going to be an countless horror right here.”
Individuals stroll by a closely broken constructing within the metropolis middle of Sloviansk on Feb. 8.
Volodymyr, the chief surgeon, sits subsequent to an empty gurney on the navy medical stabilization level for the 63rd Mechanized Brigade in Lyman on Feb. 7.
“However we’re making ready for the worst, for Trump to cease serving to Ukraine not solely with weapons however altogether,” Ivanenko stated. Throughout the nation, the Trump administration’s shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development has already pressured dozens of Ukrainian nongovernmental organizations to wind down or shut initiatives.
On the entrance line, too, skepticism about Trump’s capacity to safe a take care of Moscow stays widespread. “Proper now, I personally don’t see whom we are able to discuss to,” stated Volodya, the navy surgeon. “For me, negotiations are solely attainable if we are able to discuss from a place of power, and, judging by the developments on the entrance, we aren’t on this place presently.”
