Russia carried out deadly strikes in Ukraine on Thursday night and Friday morning, just hours after President Trump suggested that he and Russia’s leader could meet to negotiate an end to the war while leaving President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on the sidelines.
The strikes, which killed at least three people and injured more than two dozen others, came on the day that Mr. Trump’s deadline expired for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to agree to end the war.
Among the targets was Bucha, the Kyiv suburb that suffered some of the war’s most brutal atrocities.
Just hours earlier, Mr. Trump told reporters in Washington that Mr. Putin did not need to sit down personally with Mr. Zelensky of Ukraine in negotiations to end the war.
“No, he doesn’t,” Mr. Trump said when asked if Mr. Putin had to meet with Mr. Zelensky, according to a press pool report. “They would like to meet with me, and I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing,”
Asked what would happen when his 10-day deadline for Mr. Putin to end the war expired on Friday, Mr. Trump offered little clarity. “It’s up to him,” he said, referring to Mr. Putin. “And we’ll see what he says.”
For many in Ukraine, the back-and-forth between the leaders had little connection to what was happening on the battlefield.
“Here on the ground, we don’t feel any real changes from all these high-level meetings and statements,” said Sgt. Valeria, a 24-year-old combat medic reached by phone at the front line in southern Ukraine. Like all the soldiers quoted in this article, she asked that just her first name be used in accordance with military protocol.
“We laugh sarcastically at Trump’s speeches,” she said. “It honestly feels like they’re taking us for fools. They talk about some sort of diplomatic progress, but in reality, nothing changes.”
She said that there might come a point when the conflict was frozen but that this would not mean peace. It would simply offer Moscow a chance to rearm and attack again.
“I put more hope in Europe,” she said, adding that Russia was not fighting just Ukraine. “At least they’re not separated from us by an ocean.” Behind Russia, she added, “stand China, North Korea.”
“They’re all testing the West’s limits,” she said.
The Ukrainian public seems to have gradually come to accept that the war will most likely end with a negotiated settlement. A recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 69 percent of people surveyed supported ending the war through negotiations. That is a reversal of public sentiment when the same question was asked three years ago.
At the same time, 76 percent remain opposed to ending it on the terms publicly stated by Moscow.
That nuanced view can also be found among soldiers.
“Personally, I would be willing to accept a cease-fire along the current front line, because for me, the most important thing is that my brothers-in-arms stop dying,” said Capt. Yevhen, an officer fighting in eastern Ukraine.
But he does not believe a cease-fire will come anytime soon.
Andrii, a soldier fighting in the Donetsk region, said there was a difference between what he wanted and what was achievable.
“Look, to me, victory means we storm the Kremlin,” he said.
But Ukraine does not have enough weapons or soldiers, he said. “We can’t completely destroy them,” he said. “So in our situation, what do we do? There’s only one way — negotiations.”
But every drone and missile that crashes into Ukrainian towns and cities hardens the belief among many Ukrainians that there is no one to negotiate with. Russia, they believe, remains bent on the destruction of the Ukrainian state.
June and July were among the deadliest months for civilians since Russian began its full-scale invasion in 2022, according to the United Nations.
The pace of attacks overnight on Thursday is now considered modest, with Russia launching 108 drones at military and civilian targets across the country, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Of those, 82 were destroyed, while 26 reached their targets.
Over the past week, at least 46 people were killed and 182 wounded, according to Ukrainian officials.
Mr. Zelensky said the ongoing violence only underscored how important it was that Ukraine be included in the talks, whatever the format.
Careful to thank Mr. Trump “for his openness to seeking real solutions,” Mr. Zelensky said he was open to any setup that included Ukraine and European leaders.
“It is just that Ukraine be a participant in the negotiations,” he said.
Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.
Marc Santora has been reporting from Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia. He was previously based in London as an international news editor focused on breaking news events and earlier the bureau chief for East and Central Europe, based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from Iraq and Africa.
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