“If you allow me a moment of attention, we will now bring you some candles to light up while we connect to the current and then you will be able to catch some of internet connection“Announces Anna to the customers of her restaurant in Kramatorsk (Donbás), who today find it difficult to hide their unease. Your president is about to address the nation. Urgently. He is going to send an important message. But the city suffers a new electrical blackout due to the latest Russian attacks. Outside these four walls, there is no electricity or telephone network. They come here because it is the only bar in the area that has a power generator. Which turns it almost improvised into one of those “points of invincibility” where people go to charge the mobileor, simply, to be able communicate with the outside. And it is an important day.
Not even 24 hours have passed since the first draft of the peace plan for Ukraine was leaked, unleashing an emotional whirlwind in the population. From anger to sadness. From uprising, to imposed or voluntary prostration. All of them separately. Or together and in disarray. Because that agreement contemplated not only the absolute capitulation of Ukraine, but disintegrated their dignity as a people. “They humiliate us conscientiously, again and again. It is almost an act of predation”. This is how Olexander, a native of the Donetsk region, an occasional taxi driver, and now, by obligation, a regular neighbor at Anna’s establishment, defines the situation. Olexander is here, like so many others, to obtain some signal line that will allow him to find out about the events.
Workers at a daycare center in Sumy collect the fragments of a Russian drone that hit the building, / FRANCISCO RICHART / CONTACT / EUROPA PRESS
In semi-darkness, everyone holds their phones in their hands, almost compulsively refreshing the local channels and chats, which, in dribs and drabs, offer informative pills about what is happening. He generator starts to roar. The light is made. The router finally works. And, with that, some words of Volodímir Zelenskiwhich, for a moment, forcefully appease those present. “Ukrainians (…) this is one of the most difficult moments in our history (…) Of course we are made of steel, but any metal, even the most resistant, can give way. (…) Today Ukraine faces a choice: between losing our dignity or losing a key ally (…)”.
Stay or flee
Hay confusion. And exchange of glances. Doubt sets in. Will Ukraine give in? If Zelensky gave in to American pressure, it would mean that this city, Kramatorsk, the current Ukrainian stronghold, and its fellow citizens, would be de facto under Russian controlsince this is what the original plan proposed, designed behind the scenes by Washington, in connivance with Moscow. Anna, the owner, is embarrassed and analyzes the hypothetical situation while serving one of her steaming borscht: “If Russia officially occupies the entire region, so my family and I we will be forced to abandon the area. We will go. There is no other option. Ukraine is our country. Our home“. But Anna is one of those Ukrainians who, despite everything, clings to hope: “I fully trust that the international community will not allow Ukraine to capitulate. I trust that hostilities will cease soon and we will not have to flee. And in any case, I trust the armed forces of Ukraine. They are our heroes.” Sofía and her family, however, have already chosen to leave Kramatorsk. Just 3 days ago. In the midst of negotiations. Because the attacks are continuous. “The bombs often fell next to my grandmother’s house,” says Sofía. It was, for them, the only way out. An opportunity to perhaps survive.
Since that afternoon, the peace plan for Ukraine has mutated into a kind of diplomatic entanglement that rekindles the uncertainty in the hearts of Ukrainians. Europe adjusted positions and castled a visibly stunned Zelensky after the coup de grace of Trump, who for days pushed the Ukrainian president to seal the fate of his country with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to his proposal, fully bowed to Moscow’s desires. His ultimatum led to a extraordinary summit in Geneva in which, now, the US, Europe and Ukraine itself participated, and from which a new draft emerged in extremis, somewhat more aligned with Ukrainian interests, and which snipped the most controversial points of the original plan. Those that compromised Ukraine’s military capacity and its territorial integrity. For a couple of days, Ukraine depressurized. And even for the first time in time, on the streets and on the front there was talk of a possible end to the war. “I wish it deeply. From my heart. We all wish it. We are exhausted,” confessed soldier Vlad from “the hell of Pokrovsk.” He and his companions are, today, the Ukrainian holding block. Those who fight the fiercest and most decisive battle against the Russian troops.
Ukrainian soldiers of the 93rd brigade on the Donetsk front. / EFE
But Trump, skilled in the fibrillar game, decided to slow down without warning, further constraining an asthmatic Ukraine that is left without oxygen. A few hours before his deadline, aboard his Air Force One, he informed the world that he was no longer in such a hurry to reach a peace agreement. Not even meeting with Zelensky as soon as planned.
civil war scenario
Gossip began to flow in Ukraine. The bets. And the uneasiness. As if it were an infinite loop. H. is a young Ukrainian soldier who has been fighting on the Kherson front for months. He identifies himself as a “realistic idealist.” Defender of sanity against the unreason of this or any war. “I think there will be an agreement cease-firebut that will be effective only for about six or eight months. The just and necessary time for Russia to rearm and violate the possible agreement with impunity,” he expresses forcefully, invalidating Russia’s honesty in the event of signing a future non-aggression pact. It is not an isolated opinion. Tetiana, a law student, is also opposed to compromising on any type of concession: “I refuse. We cannot give up even an inch of territory.. Because it would mean pandering to the megalomaniac and expansionist desires of terrorist leaders, who would replicate the model beyond Ukraine. I would be ashamed to belong to a nation that set such a precedent.” Furthermore, he adds, almost in prophetic terms, “we would, in fact, be promoting a civil war“. A scenario that cannot be ruled out, by a large majority of Ukrainians.
Alex, a Kyiv-born photographer, maintains a more moderate profile. He speaks of an abrupt and unexpected peace process that he does not believe will be, for now, “anything definitive.” But he applauds the national and international enthusiasm to put Ukraine back in the diplomatic focus. Ukraine was “stagnant” and now, he says, “at least something is moving.” Alex hopes for a quick resolution of the peace agreement, “even if it is not 100% good for us.” Asked about his ideal plan, he responds: “I would like to stop right at this point. Where we are now. Because we have no other option. Maybe we can return territory over time and through diplomacy. But now we will not achieve it through force.” Even so, he clarifies, “he would never hand us over. We are not a gift.”
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