We live in Donbas - Trump is a clown and Putin negotiations are 'empty talks'

Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine roughly the size of Denmark, has been a key target for the Kremlin since 2014. Recently, it dominated headlines after Donald Trump's controversial meeting with Putin in Alaska. Before the meeting, Trump voiced his support of ceding unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war. Russia already controls roughly 88% of Donbas, including all of Luhansk and about three-quarters of Donetsk. Now, Putin demands that Ukraine cede all of the region in exchange for peace.

But that's far from what Ukrainians living in Donbas want. "We will stay, we will fight, we will defend and protect our territory. Because this is our land, this is our country," one resident told the Express.

Dmytro lives in Druzhkivka, a city of around 50,000 people just over 10 miles from the frontline. He co-founded the organisation Druzi Space, a volunteer group helping soldiers, evacuees, and animals affected by the war. Before the full-scale invasion, he worked in IT in a US company, which later shut its Ukrainian office.

He said he isn't optimistic about any peace deal in the next few years. Describing Donbas as "the gate" to more land, like many others, Dmytro fears ceding land to Russia would only give Putin new opportunities to launch more attacks.

When asked about what he thinks of the Putin-Trump Alaska meeting, he said it is just "empty talk", and has seen absolutely no change. "Every day, I am hearing the sounds of explosions, of shelling of our air forces, Russian air forces, our drones, Russian drones."

Following Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska, Zelensky said he is willing to meet the Russian president. Dmytro believes the Ukrainian leader has little choice but to go along with what Trump is pushing for, even if he doubts it will lead to peace.

"In Ukraine, we think about Trump as a clown. So you need to play a game with this person. He is a referee of this game. You need to be polite, you need to be quiet, and you need to be a very good boy."

Despite the ongoing fighting leaving Dmytro feeling "depressed" and "like a robot," he knows that everyone must keep going. After so many lives lost, resistance is the only way forward. He is also convinced that the Russians will not retreat, having lost many soldiers and invested significant resources to seize the region.

Like Dmytro, Kateryna from Vuhledar has no trust in the peace talks.

Before the war, Vuhledar was a mining town with around 15,000 people. When Russia captured the town last year, almost the entire population had fled and the city had been completely destroyed. Now, fewer than a hundred residents remain, living in basements and supporting the Russian occupation.

Kateryna and her family left Ukraine for London in April 2022 through the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme. Holding a PhD, she works as a media manager at an educational institution.

From her own experience, she knows how difficult it is not to have a hometown to return to - and she cannot agree less with giving up the territories.

She said: "It is vital that the integrity of our country remains in place, including the territories that are not yet occupied. Ukrainians live there, these are Ukrainian cities, and we cannot give them up.

"I will never return to my city because it has been destroyed. I will never be able to walk its streets again. My parents' house has been destroyed, my own home has been destroyed. And in my own country I remain a displaced person. I have nowhere to go back to. The last hope we had, we are completely losing."

Ksenia was born in Kramatorsk, one of the larger cities Putin demands from the peace talks. She is the director of Druzi Space and also works as a web designer. Her husband, a two-year-old son and parents live with her in the city.

"I'm absolutely sure that our land will not be swapped. It's unfair to people that live here and the militaries who defend this territory and give their lives for it," she told the Express, claiming that te Trump-Putin talks make "no sense".

When asked about Ukrainians considering ceding land to Putin, she said she thinks it's mostly people that don't live in Donbas.

"Who would want to voluntarily give up their home and their land to the invaders?

"We do not agree with giving our lands to the enemy who kills our husbands, fathers, mothers and children, all over Ukraine, regardless of the distance from the front. We want peace, but not at such a price. And if we sit down at the negotiating table, then only on adequate terms. The borders of Ukraine are inviolable according to the constitution, and we will continue to defend them."