Ukraine fears what Trump’s peace might look like

“I have no plan for the future,” said Oleksandr Bezhan, standing next to an empty icy paddock where he worked as a fisherman on the shore of the Dnipro river in the south of Ukraine. “If I wake up in the morning, it’s already pretty good.”

Malokaterynivka is only 15 km (9 miles) north of the front line in the Zaporizhzhia Ukraine region.

If US President Donald Trump manages to interrupt war, Malokaterynivka hopes to find himself on the right side of this first line.

I visited this region for the last time in 2023, when Ukraine launched a long-awaited counter-offensive.

At the time, the Ukrainians dared to dream of winning this war. After all, they had won the battle of kyiv and released from the territory of territory elsewhere.

But 18 months later, the trading artillery exchanges reflect the failure of this operation and the domination of Russia.

The front line here is largely in the same place – but the large range of the river has left.

When the Kakhovka dam occupied by Russia downstream has been destroyed, this has become a large extent of Scrub Gand.

The sterile surroundings reflect the frozen limbo that Ukraine is.

“If the front line becomes a border, it would be frightening … The fights could break out at any time,” said Oleksandr.

The bed of the exposed river separates our location from the territory occupied by Russian. The distant sunlight bounces from the Zaporizhzhia metal nuclear power plant, under the influence of Moscow since 2022.

Ukraine and the United States both want peace, but this is where consensus seems to end.

Washington’s vision, as well as the realities of the battlefield, means that Russia will probably maintain the Ukrainian lands that it is seized.

Ukraine wants significant security guarantees that would prevent the invasion forces from pushing through the river.

Instead, Donald Trump denied kyiv’s dream to join NATO’s alliance when he focuses on Russia.

After watching and reporting on Ukraine’s struggle for more than three years, it is a particularly difficult hand to receive for the country.

There are feelings of betrayal. Commentators criticize either Ukrainian president Zelensky, or the new foreign policy of his greatest ally.

“The border would not depend on us,” said Oleksandr. “It will probably not work, but Seoul is 30 km from North Korea, and they live and thrive in a way.”

Malokaterynivka’s challenge to find a new goal is at the heart of the future of Ukraine.

And while politicians talk about talks, Ukrainians continue to fight and die.

The villagers meet for the funeral of a local soldier, also appointed Oleksandr. Half of the graves of the cemetery are freshly dug.

The ceremony cannot last more than 25 minutes due to the threat of artillery. In mourning starts and hides to cover himself when his comrades shoot a cannon salvation.

“I have no hope for a ceasefire,” explains his widow Natalya, who nevertheless wants to be wrong.

“They continue to send more and more our boys at the front. If only they could find a way to finish it.”

Along the river is a disused rail line surrounded by barbed wire.

“It is to prevent Russian agents from sabotaging the track,” explains Lyudmyla Volyk, who lived in Malokaterynivka all his life.

The trains ran to Crimea in the South.

“We hope that one day it will be restored,” said the 65 -year -old, optimistic way. “And one day we will go to our Crimea.”

The eleven years of Russian occupation of the peninsula make the imagination difficult.

President Zelensky insists that he will not sign any agreement that does not include Ukraine, so Lyudmyla trusts him to obtain an agreement that protects her?

“We want to believe,” she replies after a deep inspiration.

If Donald Trump brings peace to Ukraine, he would be welcomed in many circles.

The prospect of uninterrupted nights, sirens that were silent and soldiers who return home are sucked.

But to the extent that things are, all relief would be quickly overwhelmed by unanswered questions on how a cease-fire would be held and that would apply it.

Kyiv will see this lack of details as something to play. The problem for Ukraine is that Russia too.

Additional Svitlana Libet, Toby Luckhurst and Hanna Chornous reports