For soldiers from occupied Ukraine, the bittersweet taste of the peace promised by Trump

Volodya, a Ukrainian soldier, is torn by the prospect of a truce between his country and Russia, which would leave his home village and his mother under Russian occupation.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s insistence on his ability to end the war troubles this army driver, ahead of the billionaire’s January 20 return to the White House. Trump has not presented a plan but is suspected of wanting to cede Ukrainian lands to the Russians, in exchange for peace or a truce.

“I’m torn because I want our guys to stop dying, but I also want to see my mother again” who lives in occupied territory, he told AFP in Kramatorsk, the main city of Ukrainian Donbass still under the control of kyiv.

“I would like to be able to calmly enter my village under the Ukrainian flag, rather than under the (Russian) tricolor flag, to be and feel at home”he adds.

The 26-year-old soldier, who uses a pseudonym to protect his mother’s identity, says she chose to stay there to care for her own weakened father.

Volodya’s contradictory feelings are shared by many of his fellow citizens, military and civilians.

Suspending the conflict would give a respite to the army and the population, exhausted by almost three years of war, but could amount to ceding around 20% of Ukrainian territory, with Vladimir Putin insisting that he wants nothing less.

Volodya’s last short visit to her village dates back to December 2021, three months before the Russian invasion, for tea with her mother.

“Our peace has ended”

“My mom makes really good hash browns. I miss it so much, waking up at home and going into the kitchen where she’s always busy.”said the young soldier.

He also remembers his childhood games, or the den where he met his friends in winter: “We sat there from morning until evening, playing cards, eating sunflower seeds and crackers, and talking about everything and nothing”.

This nostalgia is shared by Ioury, an officer of the Aidar battalion, aged 35. He remembers the black slag heaps of Donbass, the mining basin of the East.

These piles of rocks from the mines are “like mountains that rise everywhere on the horizon”explains the former electrician.

“There were flowering meadows, bees flying. And then the rockets fell everywhere and our peace ended”he said.

His hometown, Selydové, was conquered by Russia in October 2024 and largely destroyed by fighting.

Ioury understands that it will be difficult to take it back and rebuild it, but refuses to give up.

– Continue “our struggle” –

According to him, those pushing for a ceasefire should speak with relatives of killed soldiers.

“They would be better able to say whether we should give up 20% of Ukrainian land or whether it is worth continuing our struggle on behalf of their guys”he judges.

Some Ukrainians say they are ready for concessions. They were 38% in December, compared to 32% in October, according to polls by the kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

Oleksandr, commander of a unit in the Aidar battalion, aged 41, is originally from Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

For him, a truce spells disaster, because it would allow the Kremlin to rebuild its forces and then seize even more territory. “Appetite comes with eating”he said.

“I love him too”

Even though he has cut ties with his pro-Kremlin family who remained in Crimea, the first thing he would do if reconquered would be to hug his parents.

Volodya dreams about it too.

He talks to his mother on the phone every day. Recently he felt something was wrong: “she’s still trying to control herself, but I called her and I could hear her emotions boiling over”.

She then told him that her village had suffered repeated Ukrainian bombings. Volodya could only try to cheer him up from a distance.

Since a particularly heartbreaking conversation just before the Russians captured the village, their calls always end the same way. “She always told me she loves me. Now I also tell him that I love him. »