Defiant Ukrainians blame Trump betrayal over aid and intelligence for latest battlefield horrors
On the ground, Ukrainians are acutely aware of the repercussions of Donald Trump’s hardline decision to cut aid and access to military intelligence in the wake of his fateful White House row with Volodymyr Zelensky.
During the last day of fighting alone, Russian commandos have reportedly spearheaded an assault using an abandoned oil pipeline to sneak behind Ukrainian forces occupying part of Russia’s Kursk region.
Elite airborne and marine units backed by North Korean soldiers also launched full-frontal assaults on the Ukrainians under a barrage of artillery, drones and air attacks.
The latest attacks come after Vladimir Putin’s escalated violence was described as “what anybody else would do” by Mr Trump.
And leaving Ukraine in the dark has certainly given Putin a crucial advantage. “We’re losing,” one Ukrainian fighting in Kursk wrote in a text message to The Independent.
Meanwhile, in Kyiv, small crowds gathered on Sunday to support demands for the release of prisoners of war captured by Russia.
They further marked the birthday of Ukraine’s most celebrated poet, Taras Shevchenko, who fought for the recognition of his mother tongue in the 19th century.
Many Ukrainians are defiant at what they see as Russia’s latest attempt to wipe them out completely. And they reacted with scorn towards the help that Mr Trump has given Russia.
“It’s a betrayal. This whole war has been a betrayal,” said one supporter who would only give her first name, Victoria.
She recalled the stories she heard from her grandmother of the last major Russian-led attempt to destroy a country that Putin claims “does not exist”.
Scared of history repeating itself, she told The Independent: “My relatives, my grandmother, her family, my great-grandmother, all suffered from it; they starved in the 1930s.
“My grandmother told me some terrible stories. How she had to get food… in the neighbouring villages, people were eating people, from hunger. It really happened.”
Tetiana Chugonova said her son, Shulga Ruslan Igorovych, was captured while fighting in Mariupol during one of the biggest battles of the current war. She has had only two letters from him, and said he is now a prisoner of war in Russia.
When asked if she thinks Mr Trump could help, she replied: “Not really. I think Trump is leaning towards Moscow, towards Russia.”
