s both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin make their way to Alaska, Ukrainian commanders on the front lines of the war told us that they have low expectations for the leaders’ meeting.
“I don’t expect any results from this meeting. They will talk, agree on something, but it makes no sense. The Russians cannot be trusted. They promise one thing and do another,” said Ukrainian Armed Forces officer Serhiy Tsehotskyi, who is serving in eastern Ukraine.
Tsehotskyi also expressed frustration that the US is pulling out all the stops for Putin in Alaska, which he said reveals that Trump views the Russian leader as legitimate rather than “a war criminal or a murderer.”
“There is no point in negotiating with Putin. We have been negotiating with him about Donbas for eight years and have gotten nowhere,” he said. “I don’t see any desire on their part to end the war, given what is happening on the front lines. Right now, they are throwing their people to the meat grinder just to achieve even the slightest result. They are filling us with corpses to show that they are successful on the front lines ahead of the negotiations.”
Assault battalion commander Oleksandr Nastenko told us that he believes “Putin is not ready for a compromise.”
“He does not care about the economic situation in his country or about losses. And he will reject any compromise,” he said. “I think this meeting will end in nothing. Until one of us truly feels like the losing side, no one will agree on anything.”
