"I don't believe the war will end soon. How much longer will Trump be president? Three years?" People in Ukraine don't believe that peace can come soon. Especially after another series of heavy Russian attacks.
A young woman in her 30s is crying and praying. She can't take her eyes off the apartment building less than a hundred meters away. "They don't say anything, they just don't tell us anything. My brother is downstairs, we've been waiting here since morning." Her apartment in the same building was destroyed by a Russian missile. As were the three floors below it. According to official figures, at least 23 people were killed in the heavy Russian airstrike on Kiev on the night of August 28.
For weeks, Russia has been stepping up its attacks again. There were also attacks and casualties last night.
"If the negotiations are just about buying time..."
Hours later, heavy machinery is clearing the upper floors of the destroyed residential building. They are removing the body of a dead man. But it is not the young woman's brother. She continues to worry.
The men in the red suits of the State Emergency Service are searching non-stop. "We are clearing the debris. "Until we completely clear everything down to the basement, we won't leave," said Svetlana Vodolakha, a spokeswoman for the service.
Rescue teams are using all possible means to remove the debris as quickly as possible, Vodolakha said. "We are helping people get into their homes to get some personal belongings, because some entrances are probably very dangerous."
Many Ukrainians are worried these days that Ukraine is facing another series of heavy Russian attacks, as it did in July. Asked if he believes the war will end through negotiations, Dmytro Chulko, a young man from Kramatorsk, said: "If negotiations are conducted with a specific goal in mind, they certainly make sense. But if they are just to gain time, they are pointless." Chulko said he is still hopeful that negotiations will come to fruition. "History shows that all wars end in negotiations, sometimes fair for both sides, sometimes good for only one. But to be honest, I don't believe that the war will end soon. At least not in the near future. How much longer will Trump be president? Three years?"
"How do you talk to the aggressor when you are the victim?"
The many victims, wounded and missing people have put the war against Ukraine at the top of the agenda of European foreign and defense ministers. New sanctions against Russia and Europe's defense capabilities are also being discussed.
Pensioner Lidia, whose granddaughters live in Germany, calls on politicians to find a real solution. "They have to do it, after all, so much depends on them. Apparently they need to be reminded of this. They have this responsibility, but for some reason diplomats seem to constantly forget it. But how do you talk to the aggressor when you are the victim? I don't know."
Lydia is convinced that those who only want to freeze the war should know that everything that has been frozen can be thawed again, which is why lasting peace is needed.