Скачать или смотреть Ukrainian troops express skepticism over diplomatic negotiations to end war following Alaska summit

(17 Aug 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4597339

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kharkiv region - 16 August 2025
1. Mid of soldier walking through trench
2. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Serhiy, Ukrainian soldier:
++PARTLY OVERLAID++
"There was never any real belief. If Russia truly wanted to end this war, it would already be clear."
3. Mid of soldiers inspecting artillery ammunition
4. Close of operator remotely controlling drone with console
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Serhiy, Ukrainian soldier:
"But that side only understands force, only force. We’ve already seen this, and there’s no need to prove it again. If they see strength against them, then they (Russia) become weaker. All these negotiations that end with nothing only show weakness."
6. Mid of soldier in forest
7. Mid of soldiers putting gun in truck, another soldier moving camouflaging netting
8. Close of Nord, squad leader of artillery unit in the 92nd brigade, asking the reconnaissance team about the situation in the sky, checking if there are any drones
9. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Nord, squad leader of artillery unit in the 92nd brigade:
"These international events hardly affect us at all, and we treat them, roughly speaking, like natural phenomena. They exist, and that’s it - we have to live and work regardless. As for the situation on the frontline, I think everyone more or less understands it. There are enough videos from the front now, it’s consistently difficult."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Kharkiv region, Ukraine - 12 March 2025
10. Mid of soldier aiming American M101 Howitzer for firing towards Russian positions 
11. Close of soldier loading the howitzer with a shell 
12. Wide of soldier firing howitzer at Russian positions 
STORYLINE:
Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the Kharkiv region expressed skepticism over diplomatic negotiations to the end the war in the country after U.S. President Donald Trump failed to secure an agreement from his Russian counterpart to put a stop to the conflict.

"There was never any real belief. If Russia truly wanted to end this war, it would already be clear," said Serhiy, a gunner in an artillery unit that has been holding the northern sector of the Kharkiv Oblast for months.

"That side only understands force. We’ve already seen this, and there’s no need to prove it again," he added.

Trump failed to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin on Friday to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, falling short in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man who started it.

"These international events hardly affect us at all, and we treat them, roughly speaking, like natural phenomena," said Nord, the squad leader of the artillery unit in Kharkiv.

"They exist, and that’s it - we have to live and work regardless."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he plans to meet Trump in Washington next week.

Zelenskyy said he held a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump on Saturday after the U.S. leader met Putin in Alaska.

He thanked Trump for an invitation to meet in person in Washington on Monday and said they would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”

It will be Zelenskyy's first visit to the U.S. since Trump berated him for being “disrespectful” during an extraordinary Oval Office meeting in February.

AP Video shot by Nikoletta Stoyanova

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