What Ukraine wants from Czechia and the EU in light of Trump presidency
In early December, I traveled to Ukraine with an international group of journalists to learn what Ukrainian leaders, analysts, and citizens want the West to know about the country’s needs in 2025. We had frank discussions about peace and war. We asked tough questions and often received even tougher answers. We were pushed and given immense gratitude. This is what I learned.
What is it that Ukraine wants from the EU, its partners, and its other allies? That was the question that brought me to Ukraine. And through the many discussions we had with Ukrainian representatives, it was clear that Ukrainians were less divided than the EU is becoming.
When we met with civil society representatives in Kyiv, we were told that Russia was gearing up for a better position if Trump and his advisors coerced Kyiv into a ceasefire deal.
Speaking to Olena Halushka, Vlada Dumenko, and Hanna Hopko, among other civil society representatives in Kyiv, we discussed what security guarantees should look like:
“What’s happening now with the massive attacks—a combination of cruise and ballistic missiles, weaponization of winter, food, and attacks on the ports—is important to understand. The escalation is aimed at weakening Ukraine to force it to accept negotiations. The goal is to put pressure on Ukraine, making it feel compelled to accept the reality of negotiations, even without security guarantees. This is a crucial moment, and we must learn from Minsk I and Minsk II: without security guarantees, we cannot accept any negotiations.”
Security guarantees are crucial to Ukrainians, they explained because of the massive threat on their border. Ukraine was not fighting against Russia alone, they said. North Korea, Iran, Belarus, and others, they reiterated, were fighting this war with Russia.
The question of NATO membership arose as well. They repeated a line that Ukraine has been repeating since the beginning: they consider Russian threats in response to the feasibility of Ukrainian membership into NATO as baseless blackmail that many in the West keep falling for.
“This is simple political blackmail, and this blackmail should be stopped through resolute action. It’s just like all the other red lines: HIMARS, Leopard tanks, F-16s, and now this money. It’s all blackmail.”
It was at this meeting just outside Maidan, or "Freedom" Square in Kyiv, where dozens of students and other protestors were killed in 2013—now known as the "Heavenly Hundred"—that we also met with Vitaliy Portnikov, a Ukrainian publicist, writer, and journalist. The Square is a symbol of the city’s and country’s spirit, making it fitting that we were speaking with these representatives of civil society there.
During our meeting, as often happened, the power went out. Electricity outages were common there, despite the cold winter air.
Portnikov said there were three conditions for peace, “an end to the war.” First, he said that Russian forces had to be stopped, which required Ukrainians to have the necessary weaponry to repel the Russian war machine. And second, Ukraine’s infrastructure must be renewed and made resilient to any future aggression. This was all meant to guarantee the third condition, namely that Russia would not be able to achieve its military ambitions.
Meeting with Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the following day, he expressed a similar sentiment.
As with the civil society representatives we met, he claimed that thinking about Russia as a negotiator is incorrect. So, when it comes to negotiating on the terms of NATO membership, he similarly called the bluff [Podolyak speaking through Taras Yatsenko, as the translator]:
“You just have to understand the motivations of Russia; Russia does not come here to negotiate, they come to take land.”
For him, and many Ukrainians we spoke to, Russia was lying. They heard a long history of lies from Russia, he said. Why take Putin’s word at face value now, after they’ve destroyed much of Ukraine and forced millions to flee as refugees?
“If he is not stopped now, he will behave much more aggressively. As you can see, he’s doing very different things, from experimenting with ballistic missiles to forming partnerships with North Korea. International law and international institutions do not work for Putin; so why should he stop? He will continue.”
For the advisor, it was much more important for him to be “realistic,” as he would say about Putin’s behavior. He sees the Russian ruler as completely ignoring international law and institutions; thus, a ceasefire amounts to the same.
As the Trump presidency loomed over the country, its soldiers, and prospects of achieving peace, the advisor addressed his fears about European security guarantees.
“They want what they want. They want Ukraine to be a puppet state. If you play this game and accept their demand that Ukraine can’t be in NATO, they will play by the rules. That’s what they need and want.”
The advisor then spoke about how he saw politics in Europe now.
“We see what’s happening with classic politics in Europe. We see the influence and empowerment of both far-right and far-left parties. But the classical concept of European politics was based on more collective responsibility and less focus on the individual. The voter no longer cares about this responsibility and is afraid. That’s why they’re trying to escape, looking for an alternative. Classical parties will be losing in Europe, and that’s what Putin expects. He wants a weakened and frightened Europe.”
And when it comes to Putin’s intentions and proposed desire, he said:
“At the same time what he wants, when he weakens Europe, is to keep a row of policemen in the post-Soviet territories. He wants them to play by his rules.”
The advisor emphasized that Putin is a killer. He said Putin enjoys observing the atrocities in Ukraine, viewing them like a documentary—part of a larger imperialist history of loss and restoration.
“In this war, there can’t be a situation where no one wins. There will be a winner, and everyone will play by the winner’s rules. If you want to return to what was before 2022, that’s nonsense. Putin has ended all international rules and laws.”
When I asked Podolyak about whether or not Ukrainians are thinking about what will happen after Putin, he responded:
“It’s not about Putin; it’s about Russian statehood and how it’s structured. They have always been focused on military development and expansion. People in the West think that Russia will turn into a democratic state. This will never happen because it has always been a totalitarian state.”
Our conversations in Kyiv were the second leg of our journey in Ukraine. These conversations were put into context by our time in Lviv the following day.
My first day in Ukraine, in Lviv, began with a funeral of two soldiers. Our guide, co-founder and CEO of City of Yours (“Tvoe Misto”) Media Hub, Taras Yatsenko, told us that they have these every few days. The soldiers lined up in front of the subtly ornamented and run-down church where a large crowd gathered, of all ages, to commemorate the lives devoted to the country, and to their safety.
The service was in Ukrainian. The sides of the church featured photographs of the faces of lives lost from the city, ammunition shrapnel, unexploded missiles, paper birds tied to the ceilings representing the fallen soldiers, and Christian symbols. Despite the crowds, there was a stillness there. There was a sense of repetition as if this had happened again and again. At the same time, there was a sincerity that made it seem like it was their first time, as it was mine.
After the service ended, we walked out of the church straight to the city hall where we briefly met with the Deputy Mayor of Lviv Andriy Moskalenko who was dressed in semi-casual apparel, resembling the leadership of Zelensky. He spoke about the rehabilitation centers that are meant to begin to tackle the tens of thousands of injured Ukrainian soldiers.
The plan to establish rehabilitation centers has been in effect since April 2022, a mere two months after the beginning of the full-scale invasion. In connection, the centers are meant to have mental health centers that help with the understandable trauma many are dealing with.
The rehabilitation centers themselves will be able to help approximately 50,000 people per year. More than 30,000 soldiers in the city are from the frontlines. And, at the moment, there are 200,000 internally displaced Ukrainians who live in Lviv. Whether that is a continued trajectory is something I was not able to confirm at the time of meeting. There was a sense that the deputy mayor was in a hurry. We were in a war zone, in the end. We had our coffee, our tea, but the urgency made it all apparent: these were not regular times or circumstances.
After our meeting, we took a tram to the graveyard where more than 1,000 Lviv soldiers were buried. Each grave was adorned with pictures, flowers, candles, and flags. Standing there was a reminder of the great human cost of the war and freedom, of what lives they could have lived, and of what pointless decisions led to their sacrifice.
As Trump enters the Oval Office for the second time, the Russo-Ukrainian war is on the cusp of change yet again.
In Ukraine, we met with representatives who understood that the war was never stagnant; history could not stand still. History continues to the dismay of those who wish for better days.
The trip was organized by the Ukrainian news agency City of Yours (“Tvoe Misto”) Media Hub. Our guide and translator was Taras Yatsenko. The trip included journalists from Spain, Germany, France, and elsewhere.
