‘Make Russia Small Again’: Ukraine on edge as Trump heads to the White House | War news between Russia and Ukraine

Kiev, Ukraine – Just after setting foot in the cafeteria named after Donald Trump in the Ukrainian capital, visitors see the most anti-Russian paraphrase of the US president-elect’s best-known war cry.

Inspired by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” motto, an illuminated “Make Russia Small Again” sign shines above a display of cakes and doughnuts.

Most Ukrainians would love to see their archenemy reduced to its centuries-old size by a small principality around Moscow.

But their views on Trump’s ability to belittle Russia, stop or freeze the war and pave the way for Kyiv’s membership in NATO and the EU range from rosy optimism to grim naysayers.

The “Trump” cafeteria manager believes his idol’s “uncompromising” political tactics and business acumen will help end the war quickly.

“Given his style in the political arena and his way of doing business, I think he will be quite cautious but will take bold steps to solve this crisis,” Roman Kravtsov, a bearded 27-year-old, told Al Jazeera.

“He’s a man of his word. He acts immediately. He’s a pretty uncompromising guy,” said Kravtsov, who hails from the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which has been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

Kravtsov, who dreams of Trump visiting his cafeteria, wants to find out what he can do when it comes to business deals.

But he worries that Ukraine is unlikely to top Trump’s agenda.

“I’m not sure Ukraine’s affairs are even in his top five” list of priorities, he said.

‘There is no more ammunition’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expects “strong” security guarantees from Trump ahead of any peace deal.

“We want to end (the war) with a just peace, and for that we need to be sure that Russia will not return again with a war against Ukraine. We need strong security guarantees,” he said on Wednesday.

But for some Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the war, Trump epitomizes the collective West’s perpetual failure to contain Russia.

In 2014, Moscow annexed Crimea and backed separatist forces – but Western sanctions did not lead to Russian President Vladimir Putin backing down.

In 2022, when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, the West promised to supply Kiev with missiles, tanks, artillery, ammunition and fighter jets.

But the delivery of almost all goods was delayed, resulting in lost opportunities to retake occupied territory and countless casualties, according to Ukrainian troops and observers.

Only a handful of F-16 fighter jets landed in Ukraine last summer after years of promises and deliberation.

“We needed the planes when we went to counterattack (in early 2023), when we had the manpower, when we had the ammunition,” a Ukrainian soldier who remains on the front line despite serious wounds told Al Jazeera.

Due to Trump’s pressure on the Republican congressmen, an American aid package of 61 billion USD stopped for several months and was only approved in April 2024.

The delay cost Ukraine thousands of lives, while Russian forces regained the initiative and continued to advance eastward, albeit slowly and with appalling casualties, the soldier said.

“Lives have been lost, there are fewer people fighting, but there is no more ammunition. That’s why (the Russians) keep pushing,” the soldier said.

Trump has repeatedly said he would end the war “in 24 hours,” but never detailed his plan.

However, his team suggested he could let Russia hold on to occupied chunks of four Ukrainian regions plus Crimea.

They may also insist on a ban on Ukraine’s membership in NATO for years or decades.

‘No way’ Ukraine can push Russia back: Rubio

Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, said on Wednesday that both Russia and Ukraine would have to make “concessions” – and that Moscow could keep the occupied territories.

“There’s no way Ukraine is going to push these people all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion, either,” Rubio said.

And after months of silence about his “peace plan,” Trump “will have to come clean,” says Lt. Gen. Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces.

“Now is the time to show responsibility for his words,” he told Al Jazeera.

Romanenko is convinced that Trump’s “24-hour plan” will most likely develop into a “very difficult process that will take up to six months”.

A ban on Kyiv’s NATO and EU membership could spark a crisis among pro-Western politicians in Ukraine, who have for decades urged their constituents to abandon Moscow-dominated blocs.

A months-long, violent popular uprising ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 after he agreed to join a free trade zone with Russia.

Ukraine’s pro-Western agenda was largely based on the assumption that inevitable NATO membership “solves our security problems and the EU handles our economic development”, Kiev-based analyst Aleksey Kusch told Al Jazeera.

The hopes were “a mantra of pro-Western liberal democrats (who urged Ukrainians to) “vote for us and we will soon lead Ukraine to the EU and NATO,” he said.

Front line battles

Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Ukrainian troops continue to lose ground on the eastern front and are unable to expand the small area under their control in the western Russian region of Kursk.

“And it will very negatively show the new US administration our ability to defend ourselves,” Yuri Butusov, a journalist-turned-official, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, however, Kiev carried out its largest drone attack on Russian military infrastructure, involving more than 200 unmanned aircraft.

For the first time, they carried hover bombs that were released just kilometers before the drones reached their target.

The attack damaged fuel depots and oil refineries in the Volga River region that produce a rare brand of fuel for Russian strategic bombers that fire missiles at Ukraine.

“That’s why strikes at the refineries that produce it are so important,” military analyst Pavlo Narozny said in the televised remarks.