When the Russian artillery shell exploded next to 36-year-old Serhii as he manned the front lines in Donetsk 19 months ago, it very nearly ripped off both his legs.
More than a dozen surgeries later, he can finally struggle to his feet with the help of a cage-like brace drilled into his lower left leg — even though a 15-centimetre piece of the bone is gone.
Still, given the tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the defence of their country over the past three years of war, Serhii said he counts himself lucky.
“I have a child and I became a disabled veteran so that our country, and my child specifically, could live and feel safe, rather than waiting for our neighbour to stockpile weapons, gather forces and attack again,” he said during an interview at a rehabilitation clinic in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
“Of course, we want security guarantees for our country,” Serhii told CBC News.
Whether U.S. President Donald Trump can deliver those security assurances has become an existential question for all Ukrainians — but especially for those who’ve made immense personal sacrifices in the cause of halting Russia’s aggression since its invasion exactly three years ago.
But so far, Trump has not made any concrete proposals about what post-war help the United States is prepared to provide to Ukraine. Nor has he hinted at what concessions, if any, he expects Russian President Vladimir Putin to make.
Putin’s army now controls roughly 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory, and U.S. officials have repeatedly said Ukraine will have to cede some of that — or perhaps all — to end the war, something most Ukrainians are adamantly opposed to doing.
Instead, most of Trump’s public comments on the ceasefire issue have been attempts to denigrate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a “dictator,” criticizing his leadership abilities and demanding (critics say “extorting”) Ukraine’s critical minerals in exchange for continued U.S. military support.
Other soldiers at the Kyiv rehab clinic said Putin will never tell the truth or do what he says he will.
“I consider Trump’s position a mistake,” said a 42-year-old soldier who goes by the call sign “Historian.”
“People who commit war crimes every day cannot be trusted.”
(As is common practice, most Ukrainian soldiers are not permitted to use their full names in media interviews.)
Ukraine won’t be forced into deal: Zelenskyy
Russian troops have been accused of systematically killing Ukrainian prisoners of war, massacring civilians in towns such as Bucha and targeting civilian infrastructure.
“Historian” was near the front line on Ukraine’s border with Russia in December when a Russian drone spotted his company and dropped a grenade a few metres from him. The force of the explosion shattered his ankle.
“I’ll put it simply: I expect nothing good for Ukraine [from Trump],” he said.
While Trump has yet to explicitly spell out how he sees the war ending, at a news conference in Kyiv on Sunday, Zelenskyy shared some of his own insights into the U.S. president’s motivations.
“I think that in the world they [the Americans] live, they believe it means the end of the war,” he said, referring to a ceasefire.
“I am even certain that they believe that this will be truly a big success and that Putin won’t take a risk to start a war again.”
Trump and other top U.S. officials have indicated they expect the prospect of American companies returning to Russia after the lifting of economic sanctions will be a sizable incentive for Russia to end the war.
But on Sunday, Ukraine’s president said that kind of thinking will put not just his country but the whole of Europe in jeopardy.
“Russians will prepare and will stage another advance,” Zelenskyy said. “It is very dangerous for all.”
Zelenskyy also underscored that if Trump believes he can cut a deal with Putin and force Ukraine to go along with it, he is mistaken.
“If America … reaches an agreement with Russians about us without us, then there will be no success in this agreement if we don’t agree to its conditions. Full stop.”
U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine for not ending the war with Russia sooner by making a deal years ago. The comments were a response to Ukraine’s concerns about being excluded from talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia.
‘Manipulation’ and ‘lies’ confront Ukraine
The rehab clinic in Kyiv — called “Thank You” (in Ukrainian, Dyakuyu) — was co-founded by Hue Chon White, an American who has lived in Ukraine for more than 30 years.
White and several Ukrainian veterans set up the centre in 2023 to help wounded soldiers transition out of hospital care and back into their own homes.
“Honestly, it’s very discouraging,” White told CBC News. “It’s the manipulation and the lies and how Ukrainians are being used for the gain of other people,” she said, referring specifically to the U.S. push to extract mineral concessions.
“I believe the Ukrainians will keep on fighting for the land and fighting for the people, and that’s their motivation for why they’re fighting, in spite of what the [American] government says.”
Ukraine says U.S. support to the country over the past three years, when Joe Biden was president, amounted to $183 billion US, of which almost $66 billion has been military support.
And while European nations have provided more money in total, soldiers say that without advanced American weapons, the job of defending Ukraine from Russian attacks in the air and on the ground will be immensely more difficult.
“[We use] everything from machine-guns to grenade launchers to armoured vehicles,” said “Historian.”
“When I was last wounded, I was evacuated in an American Bradley vehicle.”
But among the soldiers at the clinic who spoke to CBC News, there seemed little doubt that should Trump try to muscle Zelenskyy into a deal, the only option would be to keep fighting the war without U.S. assistance, however challenging that would be.
“One way or another, we are ready to continue doing our job,” said “Historian,” adding he will return to combat as soon as his ankle heals.
“And this is not just my opinion, this is also what my comrades are thinking.”
