By Vitalii Hnidyi and Valentyn Ogirenko
NOVOPAVLIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) – Standing beside a bombed-out milling plant in his village, Mykola Havrylov said he felt powerless watching U.S. and Russian officials discussing an end to a three-year-old war that is creeping ever closer to his home in southeastern Ukraine.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops is now just eight miles (13 km) from Novopavlivka, a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where residents like Havrylov voiced concern about Ukraine’s exclusion from U.S.-Russia talks this week.
While most people living near the front line want the war to end, they also fear any deal agreed between the U.S. and Russia could force Ukraine to make painful territorial concessions and leave them vulnerable to continued Russian advances.
“It’s a very, very negative trend, but I have no influence over it,” said Havrylov, the former village head in Novopavlivka.
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration seeks a quick end to Moscow’s invasion without including Kyiv at the table, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said talks on how to end the war could not be held behind Ukraine’s back.
The White House said on Tuesday it would hold more talks with Russia after an initial meeting in Saudi Arabia, a departure from Washington’s previous approach that rallied U.S. allies to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kyiv has demanded robust security guarantees, such as the promise of Western peacekeepers, and Zelenskiy has repeatedly said Russia is not interested in peace and simply wants a ceasefire to rebuild its forces and invade again.
RUSSIAN TROOPS DRAW CLOSER
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s outmanned and outgunned troops are struggling to hold back a grinding Russian march across the industrial Donbas region.
Moscow’s forces are now closing in on the Dnipropetrovsk region, seen as a buffer between the war-torn east and Ukraine’s central heartland.
Russian airstrikes on Novopavlivka have become more frequent since the start of the year, residents told Reuters.
Homes scarred by guided bombs line once-quiet streets that now serve as key routes for Ukrainian armoured vehicles. Helicopters buzz low overhead and a constant din of explosions and heavy machine gun fire can be heard.
“It’s painful to look at this, and painful to realise the front is now nearby,” said school director Yurii Bilyk, gesturing to the rubble at his badly damaged school building.
European officials have also been stunned by the Trump administration’s moves on Ukraine.
At an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday, they called for higher defence spending, but remained split on the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Havrylov said he was dismayed that Ukraine’s Western partners had not provided more urgent military and diplomatic support as the Russians close in.
“I don’t understand it, and I think I’m not the only one,” he said.
(Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Helen Popper)
