Kyiv
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Moments after the chaotic Oval Office press event between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, I assumed I heard a collective sigh of aid rise above the Kyiv skyline.
“There is some good news: they didn’t fight,” was Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zelezhnyak’s response on X.
A head-on collision alongside the strains of the February Oval Office shouting match had been averted.
“I expected much worse,” one other MP, Oleksandr Merezhko, advised NCS. “The tone has changed. Trump wasn’t negative. The impression is that the presidents have gotten used to each other.”
Maryan Zablotsky, one other parliament member and deputy head of the parliamentary US-Ukraine group, mentioned, “I’m very impressed by the support of our European partners. They all gathered so quickly. Some interrupted their vacations.”
This is all in sharp distinction with the dark temper within the aftermath of the Alaska summit.
After witnessing the red carpet rolled out for Russian President Vladimir Putin final Friday; the jet flyover; the journey within the presidential limousine, many Ukrainians feared the American president’s bromance with the wily outdated KGB agent had reignited.
Add to that the offended early Monday morning Truth Social posts by Trump – by which he claimed Zelensky might “end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight” – adopted quickly after by one other put up blasting the so-called “fake media’s” protection of his Ukraine peace efforts, and it appeared the American chief was in an ominously bitter temper within the hours earlier than the assembly.
But when Trump emerged from the White House and greeted Zelensky with a broad smile and a hearty handshake, the dark cloud of dread immediately vanished. In the fairly chaotic encounter with journalists within the Oval Office, each Trump and Zelensky prevented stepping on any rhetorical land mines. All was good.
It speaks volumes that with this US administration the optics of such occasions are the main focus of a lot consideration.
As far as substance goes, nevertheless, there are nonetheless extra questions than solutions.
“How can you negotiate peace without a truce, without a ceasefire, when the situation on the front line is changing?” requested Merezhko. “If the situation is changing, it’s difficult to negotiate.”
Overnight Thursday Russia fired greater than 140 drones, and three ballistic missiles, at Ukraine – killing at the least 10 folks, together with an 18-month-old child and a 15-year-old boy.
A peace settlement nonetheless appears very distant from Kyiv.
Earlier Monday, NCS attended a funeral for David Chichkan, a standard Kyiv artist-turned-soldier, killed by a Russian drone earlier this month on the japanese entrance.
Hundreds of pals, relations, admirers, and fellow troopers took a knee as his coffin was slowly carried onto Independence Square, Ukrainian and military flags fluttered within the cool morning breeze. Mourners embraced each other, some quietly weeping.
There, we heard solely frustration and resentment towards an American administration seen as fickle and unreliable.
“After thousands of people have died in this war, it feels like we’re just being sold out now,” mentioned mourner Oleksandra Grygorenko. Like so many right here, she is repelled on the suggestion that the price of peace with Russia may very well be the lack of giant chunks of Ukrainian land.
Having watched the occasions within the White House, entrance line veteran Maria Berlinska mentioned, “In essence, we are being offered temporary peace at the cost of our interests. Give up your land, hand over millions of people in the occupied territories to Russia, and then maybe you’ll get a long respite.”
The next step is a summit involving Trump, Putin and Zelensky. It was floated that maybe it might occur by Friday. Previous makes an attempt to coax Putin to the desk have failed. Zelensky says he’s prepared to fulfill. Will it even occur?
And hovering over your complete Trump-led diplomatic push to finish the battle is the fear that the quixotic American president will change his thoughts but once more.
Journalist Kristina Berdynskykh put it this fashion: “I have a prediction: Everything will go great at the White House. Between Zelensky and Trump. Between Trump and the Europeans. Between Zelensky, Trump, and the Europeans. And then Trump will call Putin, and everything will change a hundred times again.”