“As much as the fall of Afghanistan has seriously hurt the foreign policy reputation of the Biden administration, if President Trump accepts the scenario you mentioned, Ukraine will become his Afghanistan with the same consequences.
“And I don’t think that’s what he’s looking for.”
Over the weekend, President Zelensky said that Kyiv would like to end the war by “diplomatic means” in 2025.
The war, he said, would end “quicker” with Trump in the White House.
It was classic Zelensky: part flattery, part challenge.
Among many of those who paid the ultimate price for Russia’s invasion, peace cannot come soon enough, even if it requires further sacrifices.
In Dnieper, a continuous stream of wounded soldiers passes through the doors of one of the country’s many prosthetics centers.
27-year-old Demyan Dudlya lost his leg when his unit came under rocket fire 18 months ago.
He is already getting used to his carbon fiber limb and is even training for next year’s Invictus Games. But when it comes to war, he is less optimistic.
“I think that, most likely, two regions (Donetsk and Luhansk) and Crimea will be taken from us,” he says.
“I am not sure that we will push them away from these regions. We have neither men nor weapons.”
