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- “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” Irina, a 57-year-old lawyer, told AFP
- “I don’t think we’ll get any clarity next week, unfortunately,” said Arseniy, a 21-year-old student
MOSCOW: Russians on the streets of Moscow on Friday held little hope that an upcoming summit between their president, Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump would help end the conflict in Ukraine.
Both presidents have said they are set to meet, possibly as early as next week, as Trump intensifies his bid to convince Moscow to halt its more than three-year-long military offensive.
The former reality TV star has spent his first months in office trying to broker peace — after initially boasting that he could end the conflict in 24 hours.
Multiple rounds of peace talks, telephone calls and diplomatic visits have failed to yield a breakthrough.
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” Irina, a 57-year-old lawyer, told AFP in sunny central Moscow.
“To be honest, I have no hopes,” she added.
The fighting will likely go on until both sides run out of resources, she said.
Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes and much of east and southern Ukraine destroyed.
Though Sergei, a 28-year-old car parts merchant welcomed the move toward peace, he said, “the conflict has got bogged down, it will definitely not end now.”
“I don’t think we’ll get any clarity next week, unfortunately,” said Arseniy, a 21-year-old student.
Noone that AFP spoke to agreed to give their surname, with Moscow having introduced strict censorship laws that prohibit any criticism of its offensive on Ukraine or comments that could be seen as going against the Kremlin.
Putin has stuck to his maximalist claims, demanding that Ukraine cede more territory if it wants his army to stop advancing on the ground.
“Whether you like it or not, we have to go all the way,” said Natalya, 79, a retired medical worker.
Russia will have to “clean up Ukraine — absolutely everything, including the western part,” she added.
At talks in June, Russia demanded that Ukraine pull its forces out of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO.
For Tatiana, 39, who works on Russia’s railways, talks felt like they had been ongoing for an “eternity,” without anything to show for them.
She had little interest in where the front line was or what land Russia might secure in a peace deal.
“It doesn’t matter. I’d rather it be frozen already,” she said.
“We have enough of our territory.”
Kyiv wants an immediate ceasefire and has said that it will never recognize Russian control over its land — although it has acknowledged that it would likely have to try to secure the return of land captured by Russia through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.
Leonid, a 70-year-old retiree with a short grey goatee beard, was one of the few to show a degree of optimism.
“Putin and Trump may agree on something, at least on some kind of ceasefire,” he told AFP.
“Any kind of peace is better than a quarrel.”