Trump has raised fears that the United States, Kyiv's most vital political and military backer, will abandon Ukraine in its fight and hand over easy concessions to Russian leader Vladimir Putin after years of costly fighting.
An acting battalion commander, who identified himself as Artem, said an end to US military support would be "catastrophic" for Ukrainian efforts to hold Russia back.
"We are already paying a high price and it will be even higher. I don't even know how it can be higher," the 42-year-old told AFP at a training ground in the Donetsk region on Thursday.
"I have lost many friends during this time, people I served with. I don't want to lose more people, brothers and sisters in arms," he said.
In the first presidential contact between Moscow and Washington in three years, Trump said Wednesday that he and Putin had agreed to "immediately" kick off talks.
Just hours earlier, his defence chief told European leaders that talks were unlikely to see Kyiv join NATO or see Ukraine regain control of territory within internationally recognised borders.
- 'What can we do?' -
Trump also appears to have made future US support for Ukraine conditional on gaining access to its natural resources.
Sava, a 41-year-old former prisoner who had opted to fight instead of serving out his sentence, said he did not trust Trump but would welcome a halt to the fighting, even if it meant ceding territory.
"They are politicians. We are just ordinary people. What can we do? We just fight," said the servicemen, who like Artem was fighting in the 93rd Brigade.
Fellow soldier Oleksandr told AFP there would be "chaos" if Ukraine gave away its territory.
"This is our land. How can we give it to someone just because they took it?"
In Kyiv, public figures voiced concern over the Trump-Putin call and the possibility of weakening support from Washington.
Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics, said Ukraine had been unwilling to accept that US military and political backing could dwindle.
"We have always lived in this reality. But we didn't want to admit it," he said.
Andriy Kovalenko, an official responsible for countering disinformation, said European countries should have acted more decisively and sooner to safeguard Ukraine's security.
"But no. It's expensive, we don't want to think about the war. Now we need quick decisions from Europe," he wrote on social media.
- 'Betrayal' -
Daria Zarivna, an advisor to the Ukrainian presidency's chief of staff, acknowledged that Trump's calls with Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky might usher in a new chapter of the war.
"We have a difficult process ahead of us in the fight for Ukraine, and we will go through it in unity," she said.
In central Kyiv, Ukrainians interviewed by AFP said they wanted an end to the war and voiced hope that Trump would involve Ukraine and take Kyiv's negotiating points to heart.
"How can you negotiate without Ukraine? Only with Ukraine," said Mykola, a 79-year-old retired railway worker who was displaced by fighting from eastern Ukraine.
Galyna, a 61-year-old pensioner, was matter-of-fact about the prospect of Ukrainian regaining control of its internationally recognised borders from Russia -- a priority for Kyiv in negotiations that Washington has poured cold water over.
"Well, if Ukraine gets some help, it will return them. And if it doesn't get any help, then it won't return these borders," she told AFP.
Sofia, an 18-year-old student, said she worried that Trump would repeat a pattern of making poor decisions, of which entering into talks with Putin was "probably one of them".
"To negotiate with a dictator and the leader of a country that is literally destroying us from within, and to try to reach some kind of agreement is simply betrayal for us," she said.
Europe warns Trump against Ukraine deal 'behind our backs'
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Feb 13, 2025 -
Blindsided Europeans warned Thursday that a "dirty deal" between US President Donald Trump and Moscow on ending the Ukraine war was doomed to fail -- insisting they and Kyiv must have a seat at the negotiating table.
Meeting NATO partners the day after Trump revealed he had agreed to start peace talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth denied it meant a betrayal of Kyiv's three-year war effort.
But Trump's move stunned European allies -- several of whom openly called his strategy into question.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected any "dictated peace" and his defence minister called it "regrettable" that Washington was already making "concessions" to the Kremlin.
In a blunt address to reporters at NATO talks in Brussels, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas insisted that no deal "behind our backs" could work, as she accused Washington of "appeasement" towards Russia.
"We shouldn't take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started because it plays to Russia's court and it is what they want," she said.
"Any quick fix is a dirty deal," she said. "It will just simply not work."
- 'No betrayal' -
After a 90-minute phone call with Putin, his first since returning to power, Trump said he expected to meet the Russian leader in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks -- sparking fears Kyiv would be frozen out.
That came after his administration poured cold water on Ukraine's goals of reclaiming all its territory and pushing to join NATO's protective umbrella.
"There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace," Hegseth said at NATO.
"That will require both sides recognising things they don't want to," added the US Defense Secretary.
Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the war, denied that Ukraine was being excluded from direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.
The Kremlin said both leaders had agreed the "time has come to work together," insisting it wanted to organise a face-to-face meeting promptly and that broader European security should be on the agenda.
After speaking to Putin, the US president called Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and shared details of his talks with the Kremlin leader.
Ukraine's defence minister Rustem Umerov told Kyiv's NATO backers "we're continuing, we're strong, we're capable, we're able, we will deliver".
Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance at a security conference in Munich on Friday to kick off negotiations.
It will be the latest in a flurry of high-level meetings after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held talks in Kyiv on Wednesday on granting Washington access to Ukraine's rare earth deposits in return for security support.
- 'Overwhelming share' -
Trump's outreach to Putin had been broadly expected, but the quick pace of his peace push has left heads spinning after three years of staunch Western support for Kyiv.
Kyiv's European backers are terrified that Trump could force Ukraine into a bad peace deal that will leave them facing an emboldened Putin -- while fronting the lion's share of costs for post-war security.
Hegseth Wednesday laid out a string of US expectations to halt the conflict, saying it was not realistic for Ukraine to regain all its land or become a NATO member.
He also said Europe must now start providing the "overwhelming share" of aid to Ukraine and that the United States would not deploy troops as a security guarantee under any deal.
In a statement on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of key European powers including Germany, France, Poland and Britain said "Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations."
Throughout Russia's war on Ukraine since 2022 it has been a mantra for Western powers that there should be no decisions taken on Ukraine's future without Kyiv.
NATO chief Mark Rutte on Thursday said it was crucial that Kyiv was "closely involved" in any talks about what happens in Ukraine.
Britain's defence minister John Healey echoed that message.
"There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine, and Ukraine's voice must be at the heart of any talks," he said.
Rutte insisted that any potential peace deal had to be "enduring", pointing to similar comments made earlier by Hegseth.
Russia's ally China meanwhile said it was "happy" to see the United States and Russia "strengthen communication".
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