In east Ukraine, where invading Russian forces are steadily gaining ground in costly metre-for-metre battles, Ukrainian troops holding the line see US president Donald Trump鈥檚 push for peace as a lost cause.
鈥楾he war will continue as long as Russia remains as it is,鈥� said 45-year-old Ukrainian serviceman Vitaliy, who withheld his full name in line with military protocol.
鈥楾hese barbarians will not stop until they are stopped by force. They only understand force,鈥� he said.
His assessment came the morning after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump met together with Kyiv鈥檚 European allies to present a united front and push for a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin to end his invasion grinding through its fourth year.
It ended with Trump pushing for a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, who has said that the conflict can only be ended with talks involving leaders.
In Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian garrison city and the largest still under Kyiv鈥檚 control in the eastern Donetsk region, serviceman Vitaliy was firmly against the prospect of a meeting between the two leaders.
鈥榊ou must not meet with an international criminal and you must not make any concessions to him because he can鈥檛 be trusted,鈥� he said.
Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022, unleashed the bloodiest fighting in Europe since World War II, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing millions.
Oleg, a 22-year-old Ukrainian soldier, said he was losing interest after seeing several rounds of talks between Kyiv and Moscow end without any breakthroughs.
鈥業鈥檝e been at war for several years,鈥� he said, recounting feeling some anticipation prior to earlier talks.
鈥楾hings are getting worse and worse on the front line.鈥�
Anton, a 32-year-old resident of the capital Kyiv who works in a warehouse, said the talks will likely drag out for a long time and probably not bring about an end to the conflict.
鈥楾hey can meet as many times as they want but Putin isn鈥檛 really interested and Donald Trump doesn鈥檛 really know what to do himself,鈥� he said in central Kyiv.
鈥楻ussia is like a thug and it needs to be stopped like a thug. Trying to negotiate with a thug is pointless,鈥� he added.
Ostap Shavel, a 32-year-old from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said the talks were 鈥榡ust a show鈥� and that no one knows what will actually happen next.
鈥業 think this war could last not a year, not two, not five, but decades. Even if there is some kind of freeze of the conflict, sooner or later it will resume,鈥� he added.