The Ukrainians refuse to have the lost territories recognized as Russian, so from the trenches we learn that a possible ceasefire would be seen as a useful opportunity for Moscow to reorganize the troops. The fear of a new invasion is rising and there is a lack of trust in the USA
While the European Union’s new positions on the war between Moscow and Kiev take shape, on the Russian-Ukrainian front, in addition to dying, there is commentary on the news regarding the next peace talks and the next initiatives. A Ukrainian commander writes to the Military Times while deployed in the Zaporizhzhia region, in southern Ukraine, home to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, under Russian occupation since the first weeks of the invasion, with these words: “These peace talks seem like cognitive dissonance to me.” He is just over 40 years old, goes by the nickname Primo, and explains that the feeling his soldiers have is that the talks are useless and irrelevant. The specialized newspaper Defense News takes up its contents, thus spreading an internal point of view to those who fight. In the meantime, however, talks continue this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, arrived on Monday to speak directly with US negotiators. Noteworthy is the fact that this is the first time that a representative of the Kremlin has participated in the Forum since the beginning of the war. After days of uncertainty over his presence, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also arrived in Davos to meet Donald Trump, where he too described the feeling that Ukraine was reliving a movie it had already seen. The direct consequence, in the age of social media, is that messages such as: “The peace process has become a soap opera based on the ego of one man in particular” have appeared on Telegram chats. The talks can be framed as a strategic operation, but at the front they are necessarily experienced as something personal, that is, thinking about whether their sacrifice guarantees real security or is something to be exchanged for a further pause in the fighting. “When I hear about a ceasefire or an agreement, my first thought is that perhaps this hell is finally ending,” writes the soldier, but my greatest fear is that after an agreement the Russian soldiers will reorganize, entrench themselves and start the war all over again.” According to the survey carried out in January by the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev, 69% of Ukrainians would accept an agreement that freezes the front lines with security guarantees, as long as the occupied territories are not formally recognized as Russian. This is rather difficult to propose to Moscow, also because a clear majority, 62%, says they will continue to fight as long as necessary.
Little confidence in peace talks
Among Ukrainian troops, not all soldiers described the talks as abstract or farcical: for some, the dominant feeling was one of a kind of betrayal, especially towards Washington, with messages revealing feelings of being “confused and betrayed by the recent peace talks; they were our brothers, and now it seems they are abandoning us. After all, this is the war of exhaustion and we are exhausted.” Meanwhile, truths are emerging that have been kept quiet for months: The new Ukrainian Defense Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, declared to parliament that around 200,000 soldiers are currently missing without justification and that around two million Ukrainians are wanted for alleged “mobilization violations”, i.e. men who flee because they do not trust the effectiveness of the talks. In the month of October 2025 alone, 21,602 cases of desertion had been recorded, at least as reported by The Kyiv Independent newspaper. What is certain is that any agreement that affects the borders as they were known until February 2022 would also clash with Ukraine’s internal political reality. As confirmed by a Telegram sentence from the same soldier who writes: “I believe there are some red lines that no Ukrainian politician is yet ready to cross.” Seeking future guarantees of non-invasion seems the most difficult part of the agreement: “There must be justice, and Russia must be prevented from doing it again; I will not vote for any peace agreement if it means that my children will have to fight the same enemy that my father and I fought against. At the moment, accepting Russian demands would mean more war in the future and desperation for those who fought; but also mistrust in the government and apathy towards the EU.” Another soldier, in the same chat, writes: “Wars don’t end with victories, they end with agreements.” Meanwhile, Ukrainians’ trust in President Volodymyr Zelensky, although it remains high, according to the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev, has fallen to 59%, reaching its lowest level since 2024, due to war fatigue and difficulties on the front. But at the same time he is still considered a legitimate wartime leader. However, alternative figures emerge alongside him such as Valery Zaluzhny, who enjoy greater approval, approaching 70%. A former general, Zaluzhny is seen by many as a potential future leader.
