Ukrainian soldiers hold little optimism for a diplomatic resolution to the war with Russia, coinciding with Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for the Kremlin to cease hostilities, and his stated interest in a potential meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss the conflict.
Trump, seemingly frustrated by Putin’s failure to respond to his calls to halt the bombing of Ukrainian cities, recently accelerated his ultimatum. He threatened to impose further sanctions on Russia, along with secondary tariffs on nations purchasing Russian oil, if the Kremlin failed to demonstrate steps towards a resolution.
The specific actions Trump intended to take on Friday remained unclear.
The US president’s attempts to exert pressure on Putin have so far yielded no progress. Russia’s larger military is slowly advancing further into Ukraine, incurring substantial losses in personnel and equipment, while relentlessly shelling Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine maintain significantly different positions regarding terms for peace.
Ukrainian forces are engaged in intense fighting along the 620-mile front line stretching from north-east to south-east Ukraine.
The Pokrovsk city area in the eastern Donetsk region is experiencing the heaviest fighting as Russia aims to advance into the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine is facing significant manpower shortages.
Heavy fighting is also occurring in Ukraine’s northern Sumy border region, where Ukrainian forces are battling Russian soldiers to prevent reinforcements from being sent to Donetsk.
In the Pokrovsk area, a commander expressed the belief that Moscow is not interested in a peaceful resolution.
“It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only option is to defeat them,” Buda, the Spartan Brigade commander, told the Associated Press. He used only his call sign, consistent with Ukrainian military protocols.
“I would like them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree to that, it does not want to negotiate. So the only option is to defeat them,” he stated.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a howitzer commander using the call sign Warsaw, said troops are determined to thwart Russia’s invasion.
“We are on our land, we have no way out,” he said. “So we stand our ground, we have no choice.”
Trump stated on Thursday that he would meet with Putin even if the Russian president refuses to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. This has raised concerns in Europe that Ukraine could be marginalized in efforts to resolve the continent’s largest conflict since World War II.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, stated: “Putin remains uninterested in ending his war and is attempting to extract bilateral concessions from the United States without meaningfully engaging in a peace process.”
“Putin continues to believe that time is on Russia’s side and that Russia can outlast Ukraine and the West.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that Europe should take the lead in efforts to end the conflict.
He said the leaders of Germany and France should go to Moscow “to negotiate on behalf of Europe”, or “we will be sidelined in managing the security issues of our own continent”.
Orban, a vocal critic of the European Union to which Hungary belongs, argued that Europe’s concerns that a Trump-Putin summit might not adequately address the continent’s interests necessitate a proactive diplomatic approach.
“This war cannot be ended on the front line, no solution can be concluded on the battlefield,” he said. “This war must be ended by diplomats, politicians, leaders at the negotiating table.”
