On the walls of a new apartment building in Kyiv that will eventually house more than 20 families who fled Mariupol in eastern Ukraine in 2022 hang photos of the city before Russia’s bloody siege and subsequent occupation.
There are images of manicured parks and a photo of the drama theatre, which was sheltering hundreds of people when it was destroyed in a Russian airstrike on March 16, 2022.
For Olena Bespalova, 46, they are pictures of a city she once loved but knows she can never bear to return to because she endured the worst moments of her life there.
They are reminders of a life before a grinding war that she needs to end.
“I think a peace agreement is necessary,” Bespalova said in an interview with CBC News from her room at the housing complex in Kyiv. “I think there is now a chance to stop the war.”
Uncertainty with Trump
Bespalova, like other Ukrainians, has lived through nearly three years of a full-scale invasion and is now waiting to see how the new U.S. president will follow up on his promises and proclamations to quickly end what has become a devastating and costly war of attrition.
Donald Trump, who was elected on Nov. 5, previously vowed to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, at times even suggesting he would be able to settle it before being sworn in, without ever suggesting how.
While he and his team have backed away from boasting about a swift resolution, Trump’s envoy to the region has still set a goal of 100 days to come up with a peace agreement, and the president plans to meet with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia soon after his inauguration on Monday.
In Ukraine, talk of Trump elicits a mix of feelings, including hope, trepidation and doubt.
Some fear that under him, the U.S. government, which has provided nearly $70 billion US in military assistance since Feb. 22, 2024, could strong-arm Kyiv into accepting painful territorial concessions as part of a peace agreement.
Others doubt Trump will be able to salvage any kind of negotiation because they believe Russia, which currently has the momentum on the battlefield, doesn’t want to negotiate and President Vladimir Putin can’t be trusted to follow through even if there is a deal.
Still others hope that a man who has spent his life branding himself as a skilled deal-maker — and has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy twice since September — can usher in some kind of negotiated settlement to stop the bloodshed.
“I just want our guys not to die,” Bespalova said. “There is territory … but the life of a person, I think, is the most important thing.”
Olena Bespalova had to flee her home for safety. Her husband was later injured in fighting. Now she’s one of a growing number of Ukrainians open to the idea of territorial concessions to end the war.
Growing casualties
Bespalova’s husband, who was stationed on the front line in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine, is currently lying injured in a hospital near Kyiv. He was assigned to an air defence team but was later transferred to an infantry unit to help shore up the front near Kharkiv.
Ukraine says more than 40,000 of its soldiers have been killed across the sprawling 1,000-kilometre front line, while U.S. officials estimate that the Russian military has lost more than 100,000 of its troops in battle, due to its willingness to keep sending waves of men directly into the line of fire.
With Ukraine’s military short on troops and being pushed back in the southeast, surveys show that an increasing number of Ukrainians are willing to give up territory, at least temporarily, if the West implements security guarantees, such as an invitation to join NATO or the establishment of a peacekeeping force on the ground.
Russia currently occupies about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has seized a few hundred square kilometres in Russia’s Kursk region, which Moscow is trying to claw back with the help of several thousand soldiers from North Korea.
“More people are becoming pragmatic,” said Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a private company that conducts public opinion surveys.
“If we are not able to receive all the necessary weapons and more effective sanctions against Russia, perhaps, unfortunately, we have to accept some peace deal.”
Shifting public opinion
Hrushetskyi’s team surveyed 2,000 Ukrainians over the phone during a two-week period in December, gauging their opinion on a number of topics, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and negotiations. Those living in areas occupied by Russia, as well as Ukrainians who moved outside of the country in the wake of the invasion, were not included in the survey.
His team found that 38 per cent of respondents agreed that in order to achieve peace as soon as possible and preserve the country’s independence, Ukraine “may give up some of its territories.”
Fifty-one per cent didn’t agree, while 11 per cent answered that “it was hard to say.”
The number of Ukrainians open to some kind of territorial concessions jumped significantly from 2023, when back then, 19 per cent supported the idea.
Kateryna Sachevska, 55, who is sharing a room with five members of her family, including her 84-year-old mother in a wheelchair, lives down the hall from Bespalova.
She thinks Trump will force Ukraine to negotiate and says it’s possible that a peace deal could require leaving Mariupol in the hands of the Russians, but she is adamant it would only be temporary.
“Understand this,” Sachevska said. “At one point, we will take it back.”
Few details about peace plan
While Trump hasn’t divulged how he plans to try to negotiate a peace settlement, members of his team have hinted at their vision. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, said that both sides would have to make concessions.
Retired lieutenant-general Keith Kellogg, Trump’s appointed envoy to Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News earlier this month that Trump is going to come up with a plan that is “equitable and fair.”
Kellogg, who served as national security adviser to former vice-president Mike Pence in the first Trump administration, co-authored a report last year that suggested the best path forward to peace is to freeze the conflict along the current front and entice Russia to the table with the promise of denying Ukraine NATO membership for an extended period.
Trump has said he can understand why Russia is opposed to the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO and that plans are in the works for him to meet with Putin.
High hopes for Trump
While Trump’s unpredictability has left many unsure of exactly what kind of impact he will have on the war in Ukraine, Roman Kravtsov is among those who believe he will make a positive difference.
Kravtsov owns two cafés in Kyiv called Trump Coffee & Bar. He opened the first site in 2019, and said he picked the name because he thought it was provocative and Trump was a “business master.”
Standing behind a bar that offers coffees and cocktails, including an orange drink called the Trump Sour, Kravtsov said the war was always going to have to end through negotiations.
“The only question is in what position will Ukraine, the United States and other countries take?”
Kravtsov said he believes Ukraine is far from Trump’s top priority but that he may be able to work some “magic” when it comes to the seemingly insurmountable conflict.
Doubtful of deal
Kostiantyn Rocktanen, 32, disagrees and has little faith in Trump, whom he sees as nothing more than a populist.
The graphic designer spoke to CBC News at a popular bar in central Kyiv, where he sipped on the only drink available, a popular cherry liquor.
“With Biden, there was some kind of stability, and now the uncertainty of what will happen next is a little scary,” he said, referring to outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden.
Rocktanen, who has so far managed to avoid being swept up in Ukraine’s mobilization drive, said he fears being conscripted and is nervous about getting stopped by police officers while walking down the street.
He isn’t sure how the war will eventually end but said even if there is a deal, he doubts Russia will uphold its part of it.
“Reality shows that negotiations with the Russians are impossible,” Rocktanen said. “They understand only aggression and force.”