KHARKIV, Ukraine — Even as his family sobbed into the dirt of his brother’s grave, Ukrainian soldier Artem Reshetilov warned President Donald Trump that he should not compromise with Russia during Friday’s peace talks in Alaska.
His brother, Andrei, 38, was killed by a Russian artillery strike while fighting to defend Ukraine’s front lines. At the funeral on the eve of the talks in Anchorage — which Ukraine has not been invited to — Reshetilov urged Trump not to bend to Vladimir Putin’s demands of more Ukrainian land.
“We don’t have to compromise with the enemy and give up our beloved land because this enemy won’t stop,” said Reshetilov, 46, as hundreds of Ukrainian flags, each marking the grave of a fallen soldier, flapped in the breeze behind him at this cemetery near the major northeastern city of Kharkiv.
Like many who will not be present in Anchorage, he told NBC News he fears Russia could merely use a ceasefire to “return even stronger” and attack Ukraine and even other countries in Europe.
“We know Russia and they never keep agreements,” he added.
These fears are not confined just to Ukrainian hearts but shared by governments, experts and people across Europe and beyond who fear what Trump might agree to with Putin in a bid to resolve a war he once promised the American people he could fix in 24 hours.
Hours before the talks Friday, Trump suggested that he and Putin would discuss territorial swaps between Russia and Ukraine — despite previously assuring European allies that he wouldn’t. But Trump said that “I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision” and that his aim was to set up future talks between the two warring neighbors.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Alaska, Trump said that he would not deal economically with Russia until the war was over. He also said it was possible Ukraine could emerge from negotiations with their much desired “security guarantees” against Russia attacking again.
If Russia does not agree to peace the consequences “will be very severe,” he said. “I’m not doing this for my health. I’d like to focus on our country, but I’m doing this to save a lot of lives.”
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Alarmed at being frozen out of the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government this week turned to European leaders for a lifeline, hoping to influence the high-stakes summit and prevent a potential disaster for Ukraine.
A flurry of diplomacy culminated Wednesday with an emergency video call between Trump, Zelenskyy and leaders from Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and NATO, all of whom urged the American president not to capitulate to Putin. Trump said afterward that he had assured them there would be “very severe consequences” if Putin did not agree to end the war.
U.S. allies came away hopeful they had steered the president away from a potential Putin diplomatic trap, but nonetheless remain anxious, European diplomats and former U.S. officials said.
“It’s looking better today than it did a week ago,” said William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. “The Ukrainians and the Europeans were all worried that Trump and Putin would get together and make some decisions for Ukraine.”
Even so, the apprehension is palpable.
“We all are preparing ourselves for an outcome that may be highly problematic,” said one European official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks.
So far, Ukrainian officials and European allies have tried to tread carefully to avoid antagonizing Trump. But if the talks produce a lop-sided proposal favoring Russia, “then there is no way that Europe can simply pretend that everything is simply OK,” the European official said.
Asked for a response to these criticisms, the White House directed NBC News to statements Trump has made this week saying that it would be up to Ukraine and Russia to make a deal and that this meeting was merely a “listening exercise” that could lead to an eventual summit between the warring leaders.
What’s caused the most consternation in Ukraine is Trump’s repeated suggestions that he could negotiate a “land swap” between Russia and Ukraine, having previously suggested it would be unrealistic for Ukrainians to expect the return of lands illegally invaded and currently occupied by Russia.
The American president told European leaders this week that he would not discuss territory divisions during his sit-down with Putin, two European officials and three other people briefed on the call told NBC News.
That’s not to say opinion in Ukraine hasn’t shifted. A survey by pollster Gallup this month suggested the public now favors a negotiated solution — though the majority still reject Russia’s absolutist terms.
Regardless of what Trump and Putin discuss, Ukraine’s absence renders the entire exercise absurd and insulting for many in the country actually under attack.
“Why should they talk about Ukraine without Ukraine’s participation?” said Oksana Andrusyak, 26, who works as a communications analyst in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
She expects such from Putin, a man wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. “But why does the United States, which positions itself as a state that values the rule of law,” want to take part in what she calls a “circus”?
Putin has said he is ready for peace — but only if Ukraine essentially surrenders. Rather than showing willingness to wind up his war, he is killing more Ukrainian citizens than ever.
There were more civilian casualties in July than in any other month of the war — 286 people killed and 1,388 injured — the United Nations announced last month.
