Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Valerii Pekar

I’ve been talking to Ukrainian Valerii Pekar to gauge his
country’s reaction after US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he’d
spoken to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and they’d agreed talks to end the war
in Ukraine should start right away.

Pekar, a professor who teaches at two schools in Kyiv, says he
knows hundreds of people who fought in the war and dozens of families who’ve
lost a loved one.

Ukrainians “feel cold anger” at Trump’s plans, says
Pekar, who has lived in Ukraine throughout the war.

“People in Ukraine know that trying to appease evil leads
to disaster. We have no choice; we want to survive, and we are sad that someone
in the West does not understand this.”

He also says that if Trump makes concessions to Putin, it will
be a “strategic mistake” and show “America’s weakness”.

This war is for Ukraine’s
“right to exist”, Pekar says, adding: “Surrender is not an
option”.

Speaking to reporters in the
White House earlier, Trump said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during
any negotiations on ending the war, echoing the same assurance from the Kremlin.