KHARKIV, Ukraine — Amidst the sorrow at his brother’s graveside, Ukrainian soldier Artem Reshetilov issued a stern warning to President Donald Trump against yielding to Russia in the Alaskan peace discussions scheduled for Friday.
His sibling, Andrei, aged 38, fell victim to Russian artillery while defending Ukraine’s borders. As he laid him to rest on the day before the Anchorage talks — where Ukraine’s input is notably excluded — Reshetilov implored Trump to resist Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions.
“We mustn’t give up our cherished lands to an implacable adversary,” declared Reshetilov, 46, amidst the sight of numerous Ukrainian flags fluttering above soldiers’ graves at the cemetery just outside Kharkiv.
In a conversation with NBC News, he expressed concern similar to those not attending in Anchorage: that Russia might exploit a ceasefire to recuperate and launch further aggressions against Ukraine and potentially other European nations.
“We know Russia and they never keep agreements,” he added.
This apprehension transcends Ukraine, resonating with governments, specialists, and ordinary citizens across Europe, wary of the agreements Trump might reach with Putin in his drive to expediently resolve a conflict he once claimed could be settled within a day.
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With Ukraine excluded from the negotiations, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his administration urgently appealed to European allies, aiming to sway the critical summit’s outcome and avert possible detrimental consequences for Ukraine.
A flurry of diplomacy culminated with a Wednesday emergency video call between Trump, Zelenskyy, and leaders from Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and NATO, all of whom urged the American president not to capitulate to Putin. Trump said afterward that he had assured them there would be “very severe consequences” if Putin did not agree to end the war.
U.S. allies came away hopeful they had steered the president away from a potential Putin diplomatic trap, but nonetheless anxious, European diplomats and former U.S. officials said.
“It’s looking better today than it did a week ago,” said William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. “The Ukrainians and the Europeans were all worried that Trump and Putin would get together and make some decisions for Ukraine.”
Even so, the apprehension is palpable.
“We all are preparing ourselves for an outcome that may be highly problematic,” said one European official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
So far, Ukrainian officials and European allies have tried to tread carefully to avoid antagonizing Trump. But if the talks produce a lop-sided proposal favoring Russia, “then there is no way that Europe can simply pretend that everything is simply ok,” the European official said.
Asked for a response to these criticisms, the White House directed NBC News to statements Trump has made this week saying that it would be up to Ukraine and Russia to make a deal between them, and that this meeting was merely a “listening exercise” that could lead to an eventual summit between the warring leaders.
Trump said Thursday that Putin was “not going to mess around with me,” but added that he “will be very proud to end this war” along with several others he claims to have helped resolve, calling himself the “peacemaker-in-chief.”
What’s caused the most consternation in Ukraine is Trump’s repeated suggestions that he could negotiate a “land swap” between Russia and Ukraine, having previously suggested it would be unrealistic for Ukrainians to expect the return of lands illegally invaded and currently occupied by Russia.
The American president told European leaders this week that he would not discuss territory divisions during his sit-down with Putin, two European officials and three other people briefed on the call told NBC News.
That’s not to say opinion in Ukraine hasn’t shifted. A survey by pollster Gallup this month suggested the public now favors a negotiated solution — though the majority still reject Russia’s absolutist terms.
Regardless of what Trump and Putin discuss, Ukraine’s absence renders the entire exercise absurd and insulting for many in the country actually under attack.
“Why should they talk about Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation?” said Oksana Andrusyak, 26, who works as a communications analyst in the Ukrainian capital.
She expects such from Putin, a man wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. “But why does the United States, which positions itself as a state that values the rule of law,” she asked, want to take part in what she calls a “circus?”
Putin has said he is ready for peace — but only if Ukraine essentially surrenders. Rather than showing willingness to wind up his war, he is killing more Ukrainian citizens than ever.
July saw more civilian casualties than any other month during the war — 286 people killed and 1,388 injured — the United Nations announced last month.
