Olena Matvienko knows that she doesn't often go home.
The Russians captured her city, Maryupol, shortly after their invasion of Ukraine. A Russian missile destroyed her old apartment. Her daughter and granddaughter were killed in the city. Still, 66-year-old Matvienko wants to go back.
However, after comments by President Trump and his Defense Secretary this week, it has shown that Ukraine must abandon its territory as part of its peace agreement. She is worried that Mariupol will become a part of Russia. And she's terrifying.
“If a part of America was taken away from them, I want to see how they react,” the roughly 4.6 million people who fled from their occupied territories and Crimean homes to live elsewhere in Ukraine, saying, “We'd like to see how they react.” Matvienko, one of the Ukrainians, said. “It's like ripping off a man's arm or leg and saying, 'It's going to be it.' ”
Trump has pledged to bring a quick end to the war caused by a full-scale invasion of his Russian neighbors three years ago. This week, he and his defense secretary Pete Hegses publicly handed two big trophies to Moscow before peace talks begin, and Russia will be able to maintain at least some of the Ukrainian territory it captured. He said that Ukraine will not immediately join NATO.
Russia occupied about 20% of Ukraine, including Crimea, which was seized in 2014. If the deal outlined by US officials this week is made, many people who lost their homes in the war will likely return.
There will be two Ukraines in the future. One is one controlled by Kiev and one of the Russian satellites that were abused in the east, with many Ukrainian families split between them.
“This chain of Trump's statements is a chain of humiliation for people like me, those who believed there was law and justice in the world,” said the 50-year-old journalist who fled from Maripol to Kiev in 2022. Anna Mariekina said.
“When you live in a world that's falling apart under your feet,” she said. When countries like the United States are no longer pillars, there is nothing to hope for. ”
In explaining America's position, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said it was “unrealistic” to assert Ukraine's return to its old border. It said, “It only prolongs the war and causes more suffering.”
It is difficult to say how many people remain in the occupying territory. One estimate was that as of June last year, there were around 6 million people living there, including 1.5 million children.
Some villages are bombed so heavily heavily, and now they resemble Moonscape. People complain about the shortages of sewerage, water, electricity and other public services, but the school aims to indoctrinate Russian ideology and Ukrainian children.
One woman from Berdiansk, a port captured by Russia in 2022, said that while few former residents remained, the city is slowly recovering. She said she did not support the Russian invasion and, like the others who stayed, she was just trying to live her own life.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was scared of retaliation, said she angered some Ukrainians being called people who remained traitors. “We didn't betray anyone,” she said. “We live in our own land, our own homes and we are trying to survive in the circumstances we find.”
Liubov, 64, uses only her name, using her name to escape from Melitpol in eastern Ukraine in 2022 and moves to Zaporia, now near the frontline. She said she was worried about her son fighting for the Ukrainian army.
“It's naive, but I know, but I really wanted Trump,” Lvov said. “Everyone I knew said he was very unpredictable. Maybe he was the one who would stop the war.”
Now she wonders what the cost of peace is for them, like other eastern Ukrainians.
“I was fantasizing about how to get home to Meritopol and clean these assholes homes. “I'll plant new roses because no one cares about the garden there, so maybe a lot. Because the flowers are gone.”
For some families, division is more than just geographical.
For example, the 55-year-old lives in Dnipro, on the side of Kiev-controlled Ukraine, but her two sons live on the other side of the front line. Her young son, 20, is trapped in a family home in the village of Donetsk. She said she hadn't spoken to her older son who was on her side with Russia.
He is not alone. For years, President Vladimir V. Putin has hampered the idea that Ukraine as Ukraine should not exist, but belongs to Russia, as in the Soviet era. And some Ukrainians support the idea of joining Russia, especially in parts of eastern Ukraine, near the border.
The Ukrainian government has long said that Russia should restore its borders before it captures Crimea, but in recent months, President Volodimia Zelensky has changed his public stance I did. He now says that Ukraine may have to temporarily transfer the land to Russia in a peace agreement and then try to regain it later through diplomatic means.
Recent polls show that Ukrainians tired of the shattering war are more willing to exchange lands for peace than ever before. In November, a Gallup poll said more than half of respondents wanted a quick end to the war.
Under the Biden administration, the United States was Ukraine's biggest supporter. But Trump and his team are skeptical of us being involved in the war.
Without the US in the corner, it is unknown how Ukraine can continue to fight, or diplomatic paths will be available to take territory from Russia. If US assistance ceases, Europe and other allies may have to dramatically increase military aid. Already, the country is struggling to recruit new soldiers.
Many Ukrainians in the occupied regions say they are afraid to talk to families elsewhere in Ukraine, especially. When they talk, like 20-year-old men and Dnipro mothers on the frontline Russian side, they choose uncontroversial topics like forests and weather.
Russian civilians have already moved to several occupying territories entitled to cheap mortgages and abandoned property. Some brokers are actively recruiting Russian buyers for waterfront properties in places like Mariupol and Crimea.
One Crimean woman, whom she spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation, said in an interview that she and her neighbors had adapted to the Russian system. She said she stayed in Crimea because she wanted to raise her children in her hometown, but there was little hope.
Many people are emotionally low due to all the uncertainty, she said. “I don't know what outlook me or my kids have,” she said. “That's incredibly discouraging.”
Matvienko, a woman whose daughter and granddaughter were killed in Mariupol, became famous in Ukraine after fleeing the city by returning to Russia's controlled territory and retrieving her 10-year-old grandson. He killed his mother.
Her friends say people have moved from the Russian Republic to Mariupol and tell her horror stories about life there now.
“They can come to any house and throw away the owner and take it out,” Matvienko said. “They can grab your business, your car.”
“There's an absolute lawlessness,” she added. “No one complains.
One friend who frequently chatted on her social media channels is silent, she said. No one knows where she is.
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn and Dzvinka pinchuk Contributed with a report from Kyiv Yurii syvala From Lviv, Ukraine.
