Fury, tears and fatigue in Ukraine

Ukrainians want peace, of course. But before that they want victory, writes Cathy Newman in Kyiv.

Warning: Distressing images

Maidan Square in central Kyiv 12 years ago was thronged with protesters desperate to stop Ukraine’s then president cosying up to Vladimir Putin.

Now, everywhere you look, the ground is carpeted with miniature Ukrainian flags, each one remembering a soldier killed in Russia’s bloody onslaught.

Amongst the flags, grieving relatives have placed lovingly-framed pictures of the fallen - more often than not young men, sacrificed to a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

A few scattered visitors pay tribute, stooping to look at names or take pictures. It is a haunting vista. A gut-wrenching reminder of the human cost of the war Donald Trump promised to end on his first day in office. On Friday in Alaska, he failed to deliver on that pledge more than 200 days later.

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Families of Ukrainian soldiers went to the American Embassy in Kyiv on Friday to make their feelings known to the US president.

“Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” says Maryna, whose husband Mykola has been missing in action since 2023.

Maryna’s husband Mykola has been missing in action since 2023.

They’re furious their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wasn’t invited to the Alaskan summit, forced to watch from the sidelines as the man the Ukrainians call a war criminal was treated not only to a red carpet arrival but a ride in the ‘Beast’, the presidential limousine, not to mention the fly-past.

Natalia tells me about her brother Andrei, who’d always looked after her, until he went missing on his first frontline mission in February.

She hasn’t heard from him since. She tries to stay hopeful but it’s desperately difficult.

“I think that he is suffering,” she says, swallowing her tears. “He always protected me. I was always his younger sister and being without him for me as a person, for me as a girl, here in Kyiv, this is very hard. But I am standing for him and praying that one day he will stand up for me once again.”

Natalia holds on to hope she will see her brother Andrei again.

Wandering around cities like Kyiv or Lviv, apart from the regular din of air raid sirens, it’s hard to believe this is a country at war. A pianist performing live in the grounds of Kyiv’s St Sophia Cathedral draws crowds, the restaurants thrum with diners and strains of a saxophone drift into the warm night air.

The families of those who have sacrificed everything to defend Ukraine’s freedom and sovereignty hope to enjoy all this once again.

They want peace, of course. But before that they want victory.

Protesters demonstrate outside the US Embassy in Kyiv.

Publicly, most Ukrainians defend to the hilt Zelenskyy’s insistence that not an inch of territory will be handed to Putin. Privately though, more than three years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and eleven since Moscow casually annexed Crimea, some express a weary resignation that in the months to come, concessions may have to be made.

They’re encouraged that European countries stiffened Trump’s resolve before his encounter with Putin. Zelenskyy’s one-to-one meeting with Trump on Monday in Washington DC is the audience Europe had called for. And there are reports European leaders may also be invited to these talks.

So the dream of the Maidan protesters of drawing closer to Europe lives on.

And the president successfully dislodged by the Maidan uprising is now in exile in Russia, given sanctuary by the man now pulverising Ukraine.