The negotiations for a possible peace agreement on Ukraine are being followed with great interest all over the world, especially in the attacked country. The German publication Focus.de spoke to people in Ukraine. Their assessment of the negotiations is harsh.
Ukrainian journalist Denis Trubetskoy from Kiev described the peace talks between the US and Russia as a "grand spectacle for the audience". He explained: "Of course we want a ceasefire. But negotiations are meaningless if Ukraine is not at the table. And I am very skeptical that Russia wants a ceasefire and negotiations. Putin wants to destroy Ukraine!"
Denis Trubetskoy finds Donald Trump's strategy incomprehensible. "Trump is imposing sanctions on Russia while simultaneously negotiating with Putin. Trump thinks this is particularly clever. But this behavior is schizophrenic and would only work in a parallel universe“.
According to him, the seemingly simple demand that Ukraine cede territory would be extremely difficult in reality. “Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians live in the territories that Russia wants. How are they supposed to live under Putin's rule? What is their humanitarian situation there? It is not clear whether they are safe.“
According to Denis Trubetskoy, the perception that western Ukraine is safe is a Western prejudice: “We have been in a full-scale war for four years. There are regular attacks in western Ukraine, resulting in deaths and injuries. Russia is attacking energy supplies, including in Kiev. Here, in the capital, the power goes out for hours every day. Putin wants our big cities to become uninhabitable. This will be the hardest winter for us since war.“
Yulia Zeid from Nikolaev in southern Ukraine tells of drone attacks and missile strikes. She does not believe that anything will come of the negotiations between Putin and the US: “We know our enemy better than anyone else. Russia is simply trying to buy time so that the US does not impose sanctions on them. But the Russians are not interested in a peace agreement and would never agree to one. They are not interested in territories, they want to conquer all of Ukraine and kill Ukrainians.“
Some in Ukraine believe that Trump is playing the role of a real estate agent who believes that he can simply hand Ukraine over to the enemy in order to gain recognition in the eyes of his citizens.
Another Ukrainian woman says that Ukrainians want peace, but Putin has not given any signals that he is ready for it. Russia is rearming. Nothing Putin does points to peace. The Russian president does not want to negotiate, he wants war.