Pavlo Nebroev stayed up until the middle of the night in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv to wait for a press conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin thousands of kilometres away.
The US and Russian leaders had met in Alaska to discuss Russia’s more than three-year invasion of his country.
But they made no breakthrough and seen from Kharkiv — heavily attacked by Russia throughout the war — the red-carpet meeting looked like a clear win for Putin.
“I saw the results I expected. I think this is a great diplomatic victory for Putin,” Nebroev, a 38-year-old theatre manager, said.
“He has completely legitimised himself.”
Trump inviting Putin to the US ended the West’s shunning of the Russian leader since the 2022 invasion.
Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited, described the trip as Putin’s “personal victory”.
Nebroev was not only outraged Ukraine was left out of the meeting, but also considered it a waste of time.
“This was a useless meeting,” he said, adding: “Issues concerning Ukraine should be resolved with Ukraine, with the participation of Ukrainians, the president.”
Trump later briefed European leaders and Zelensky, who announced he would meet the US leader in Washington on Monday.
The Trump-Putin meeting ended without a deal and Trump took no questions from reporters — highly unusual for the media-savvy US president.
Olya Donik, 36, said she was not surprised by the turn of events as she walked through a sunny park in Kharkiv with Nebroev.
“It ended with nothing. Alright, let’s continue living our lives here in Ukraine,” she said.
Hours after the talks, Kyiv said Russia attacked with 85 drones and a ballistic missile at night.
“Whether there are talks or not, Kharkiv is being shelled almost every day. Kharkiv definitely doesn’t feel any change,” said Iryna Derkach, a 50-year-old photographer.
She had stopped for the daily minute of silence held across the country to honour the victims of the Russian invasion.
She was standing just in front of Derzhprom, a modernist structure considered to be one of the first Soviet skyscrapers, which was damaged by a strike last year.
“We believe in victory, we know it will come, but God only knows who exactly will bring it about,” she said.
“We don’t lose faith, we donate, we help as much as we can. We do our job and don’t pay too much attention to what Trump is doing,” she added.
