MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
On Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian officials will meet with a U.S. delegation, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to try to find a framework for a potential ceasefire agreement with Russia. These talks come 10 days after President Trump and Vice President JD Vance scolded Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a meeting in the Oval Office. After that meeting, Trump accused Zelenskyy of not being ready for peace. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is in Ukraine, and she's been talking to people about what kind of deal they envision.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Dmitro and Olena Reifshcneider are waiting for their bus in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The young couple says they still can't get over the White House meeting that seemed to show their longtime U.S. ally turn against them and let Russian President Vladimir Putin off the hook.
DMITRO REIFSHCNEIDER: We are shocked, yes. And I don't understand of - if it's a part of a big plan or it's really what it seems to be, as what it seems like. And I don't know what to expect.
OLENA REIFSHCNEIDER: Of course, we want peace very much, yes, but for us, it's very painful to hear that...
D REIFSHCNEIDER: It's our fault, yes.
O REIFSHCNEIDER: It's our fault, because it's...
D REIFSHCNEIDER: That Ukraine is...
O REIFSHCNEIDER: ...Not our fault. We want to live in our country and to live like we want to live in our society, but - and without Russia, without their politics.
BEARDSLEY: The couple says these last years have proven that Russians and Ukrainians are very different people. They can't imagine living under what they call Putin's brutal dictatorship. The Oval Office quarrel also shook up Europe, which has now pledged over $800 billion to build up European defense and provide immediate military support for Ukraine after Washington suspended aid. French President Emmanuel Macron said there could be no lasting peace if Ukraine is abandoned.
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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: "Russia has become, and will be for years to come, a threat to France and Europe," he said. The heads of European militaries are gathering in Paris tomorrow to discuss keeping the peace in Ukraine once the fighting stops. Britain and France have pledged to be the backbone of such a force. But the Kremlin has said sending troops from any NATO country into Ukraine is crossing a red line. And when it comes to ceasefire talks, it's easy to see other possible sticking points when you talk to Ukrainians.
TARAS YATSENKO: We have to bring, first, truth here. We have to name the aggressor.
BEARDSLEY: That's Taras Yatsenko, the founder of an independent media house. He says for a real peace, you need justice, or at a minimum, truth.
YATSENKO: And if you want to make it never happen again, it means that, really, Russia must be defeated.
BEARDSLEY: Though he admits he is worried after the recent statements and actions of President Trump. I ask him if Ukrainians will accept freezing the conflict lines where they are. For now, he says, but not indefinitely.
YATSENKO: They can't be recognized as officially Russian territories because they are Ukrainian. That's a sovereign Ukrainian territory.
BEARDSLEY: Putin has said all territories controlled by Russia now will remain Russian and even claims other areas as belonging to Russia.
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BEARDSLEY: Thousands of Ukrainian flags whip in the wind at a military cemetery where 28-year-old Alina Zaitseva has just visited her young husband's grave. I ask what kind of peace she imagines.
ALINA ZAITSEVA: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: "I don't want us to negotiate with Russia at all," she says. "My husband died fighting for us to live on our land. What they're proposing now is horrifying." Zaitseva fears the U.S. will force Ukraine to capitulate.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Lviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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