Kiev, Ukraine – Light fibers are caught in the branches of the frontline tree in eastern Ukraine, thread-thin and shining in length of the sun and kilometers.
The cords may be attached to Russian drones and are still attached to Russian drones, immunized from radio electronic clogging.
The drone may have been shot down. Some are still operational, waylaid and full of danger.
“When someone is passing by, they just fly and attack,” I, a military officer deployed in eastern Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.
“That’s why, if you see (the fibers), you’d better destroy them in hell to protect yourself.”
He and his army are hemispheres separate from President Donald Trump and his peace plans to end the Russian-Ukraine war, established under the weight of Moscow’s expanding list of conditions.
The ceasefire appears to be a distant prospect that meetings between US negotiators and Ukrainians and Russian officials will not bring about concrete results.
“I initially fixed some hopes on Trump,” I said. “But when nothing happens the first, second, third time, we stop paying attention.”
Oleh isn’t too worried about the discussion about the water heater that works in his quarters, his wife from Kyiv and the opportunity to see his unit’s new drone operator.
After gradually losing gradually the loss of Ukrainian territory and catastrophic loss of personnel, there were few Ukrainian men volunteering to fight.
Conscriptions are then subjected to a short training program and are thrown into the forefront as stormtroopers.
“I have an order to recruit people, but I don’t know where to find it,” he said. “We need someone who is at least a little motivated and knows where to go, someone who understands that they’ll be rounded up on the streets to become a stormtrooper, but who chooses to come here instead.”
Some potential soldiers have advanced wartime skills to help them survive, and their numbers have diminished as Trump’s loud yet fruitless promise of peace has the effect of inconsistency.
“We have very few civilians,” says Andri Pronin, one of the pioneers of the Ukrainian drone war, who runs a school for aspiring drone operators in Kiev. “Everyone thinks the war will end soon.”
Most of his cadets these days are experienced military personnel, he added.
Many such soldiers feel betrayed when they learn of another concession Russia has made from Trump.
“We seem to be a dedicated wife. We will be the last to learn about her husband’s affair,” Ihor, a military officer at Odesa’s Black Sea Port, told Al Jazeera.
Odesa is dangerously close to the occupied Crimean area, annexed by Herson’s southern region and the Crimean Peninsula, with Russian drones and missiles attacking the city almost daily.
“What we’ve heard (about peace negotiations) is nothing but rumors,” he said.
Last week, Trump imposed tariffs on 185 countries, excluding Russia and its closest allies, Belarus and North Korea.
The White House has also lifted sanctions against Kiril Dmitriev, one of the main negotiators of the Ukrainian Kremlin, who visited the White House for a two-day radar talk last week.
Dmitriev, born in Kyiv and US-educated, manages the Russian sovereign wealth fund and is reportedly connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Reuters, Dmitriev’s wife, Natalia Popova, “is in a foundation in which adjutant from Katerina Tykonova, one of Putin’s daughters, works with the Moscow State University where they both studied.”
In a statement aired on Sunday, Dmitriev pleaded that “the US government still has a large number of Russian enemies,” and denounced a “complete disinformation” campaign that ruled out Moscow’s perspective.
Halyna Vanytina has a first-hand knowledge of the “viewpoint” of Russia.
A Russian drone crashed into an apartment in Northeastern city’s neighbourhood in Northeastern city on Thursday, killing a 12-year-old girl, her parents and neighbors, and injuring 34 more people.
The explosion shock waves shattered windows in hundreds of apartments nearby.
“Trump and Ukraine live in a variety of spaces,” she told Al Jazeera. “He talks about his friendship with (Putin): We’ll be dressed, asleep and keep the documents in a fireproof box.”
The Russian troops have been repelled several times in attempts to seize Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, just 40 km (25 miles) from the border with Russia.
“There will be no lulls and no ceasefire first.”
For a serviceman who has turned to Ukrainian political analyst, the failure to negotiate with the estimated ceasefire by Trump is linked to seizing as much Ukrainian land as possible for domestic public relations victory, in connection with Putin’s IDEE FIXE.
Putin can claim “the title of a great conqueror and (Russian) land gathering,” Kiril Sazonov wrote in the telegram on Monday, as President Putin wants to continue his attacks until autumn, hoping to break through Ukraine’s defenses.
“So we have no calm or a ceasefire that has gradually shifted to stable peace,” he wrote. “But we can withstand the way we do it in 2022.”
Another military man deployed in the Donbas area said after half a dozen contention and stints in the hospital, he left with only resolve and black humor.
Mikola, a 38-year-old civil engineer who spent two years in the trench, said he didn’t want Ukrainian president Voldy Mirzelensky to be dressed down by Trump and forced to round out Ukraine’s natural wealth.
The only way to prove Ukraine’s resilience is to continue targeting Russian advances, he said.
“There’s probably a lot of fieldwork,” he told Al Jazeera.