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On the walls of a new apartment building in Kyiv, which will eventually house more than 20 families who fled Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in 2022, hang photos of the city before Bloody siege of Russia and later occupation.
There are pictures of manicured parks and photos of a drama theater that sheltered hundreds of people when it was destroyed in a Russian airstrike on March 16, 2022.
For Olena Bespalova, 46, these are images of the city she once loved, but she knows she will never be able to return because she lived through the worst moments of her life there.
They are reminders of life before the difficult war that she must end.
“I think a peace agreement is necessary,” Bespalova said in an interview with CBC News from her room in an apartment complex in Kiev. “I think now there is a chance to stop the war.”
Uncertainty with Trump
Bespalova, like other Ukrainians, lived through nearly three years of a full-scale invasion and is now waiting to see how the new US president will follow through on his promises and proclamations to quickly end what has become a devastating and expensive war of attrition.
Donald Trump, who was elected on November 5, previously promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, at times even suggesting that he would be able to resolve it before the oathwithout any suggestion of how.
Although he and his team have stopped boasting of a quick fix, Trump’s envoy to the region still set a goal 100 days reach a peace deal, and the president plans to meet with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia shortly after his inauguration on Monday.
In Ukraine, talk of Trump evokes a mix of feelings, including hope, trepidation and doubt.
Some fear that it is under him, the US government, which provided almost 70 billion dollars in military aid from February 22, 2024, could harden Kiev into accepting painful territorial concessions as part of a peace deal.
Others doubt that Trump will be able to salvage any kind of negotiations because they believe that Russia, which currently has momentum on the battlefield, does not want to negotiate and that President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted to see it through even if there is a deal.
Still others hope the man who has spent his life branding himself as a skilled deal maker – and has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky twice since September – can initiate some sort of negotiated settlement to stop the bloodshed.
“I just want our guys not to die,” said Bespalova. “There is a territory … but the person’s life is, I think, the most important thing.”
Olena Bespalova had to run away from her house for safety. Her husband was later wounded in a fight. Now she is one of a growing number of Ukrainians open to the idea of territorial concessions to end the war.
An increasing number of victims
Bespalova’s husband, who was stationed on the front line in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, is currently lying injured in a hospital near Kiev. He was assigned to an air defense team, but was later transferred to an infantry unit to help consolidate the front near Kharkiv.
Ukraine says more than 40,000 of its soldiers have been killed on a 1,000-kilometer-long front, while US officials estimate tthe Russian army has lost more than 100,000 of its soldiers in combat, due to its willingness to continue sending waves of men directly into the line of fire.
Since the Ukrainian army lacks troops and is pushed to the southeast, research shows that an increasing number Ukrainians are willing to give up territory, at least temporarily, if the West implements security guarantees, such as an invitation to NATO membership or the establishment of peacekeeping forces on the ground.
Russia currently occupies approx one fifth of the Ukrainian territoryincluding Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has occupied several hundred square kilometers in the Russian Kursk region, which Moscow is trying to return with the help of several thousand soldiers from North Korea.
“More and more people are becoming pragmatic,” said Anton Hrushetskyi, CEO Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a private company that conducts public opinion research.
“If we are not able to get all the necessary weapons and more effective sanctions against Russia, we may, unfortunately, have to accept some kind of peace agreement.”
Changing public opinion
Hrushetskyi’s team polled 2,000 Ukrainians by telephone over two weeks in December, gauging their views on a number of topics, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and the negotiations. Those living in the territories occupied by Russia, as well as Ukrainians who moved out of the country after the invasion, were not included in the research.
His team found that 38 percent of respondents agreed that, in order to achieve peace as soon as possible and preserve the country’s independence, Ukraine “could give up some of its territories.”
Fifty-one percent disagreed, while 11 percent said it was “hard to say.”
The number of Ukrainians open to some kind of territorial concessions jumped significantly compared to 2023, when 19 percent supported the idea.
Kateryna Sachevska, 55, who shares a room with five members of her family, including her 84-year-old mother in a wheelchair, lives down the hall from Bespalova.
She thinks Trump will force Ukraine to negotiate and says it’s possible a peace deal could require leaving Mariupol in Russian hands, but she’s adamant that it would only be temporary.
“Understand this,” Sačevska said. “At some point we will take it back.”
A few details about the peace plan
While Trump has not revealed how he plans to try to negotiate a peace deal, members of his team have hinted at their vision. Marco RubioTrump’s pick for secretary of state, he said both sides would have to make concessions.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News earlier this month that Trump would come up with a plan that was “fair and honest.”
Kellogg, who was former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser in the first Trump administration, he co-authored the report last year who suggested that the best way forward to peace was to freeze the conflict along the current front and lure Russia to the table by promising to deny Ukraine NATO membership for an extended period.
Trump said he could understand why Russia was opposed the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO and that his meetings with Putin are planned.
High hopes for Trump
While Trump’s unpredictability has left many unsure of exactly what impact he will have on the war in Ukraine, Roman Kravtsov is among those who believe he will make a positive difference.
Kravtsov owns two cafes in Kyiv called Trump Coffee & Bar. He opened the first page in 2019, and he chose the name because he thought it was provocative, and Trump is a “master of business”.
Standing behind a bar serving coffees and cocktails, including an orange drink called the Trump Sour, Kravtsov said war will always have to end in negotiations.
“The only question is what position will Ukraine, the United States and other countries take?”
Kravtsov said he believes Ukraine is far from Trump’s top priority, but that he could work some “magic” on the seemingly insurmountable conflict.
I doubt the deal
Kostiantyn Rocktanen, 32, disagrees and has little faith in Trump, whom he sees only as a populist.
The graphic designer spoke to CBC News at a popular bar in downtown Kyiv, where he sipped on the only drink available, the popular cherry liqueur.
“There was some kind of stability with Biden, and now the uncertainty of what’s going to happen next is a little scary,” he said, referring to outgoing US President Joe Biden.
Rocktanen, who has so far managed to avoid being drafted in Ukraine’s mobilization operation, said he fears being mobilized and is nervous about being stopped by police while walking down the street.
He is not sure how the war will ultimately end, but said that even if there is an agreement, he doubts Russia will fulfill its part.
“The reality shows that negotiations with the Russians are impossible,” Rocktanen said. They understand only aggression and force.
