KRAMATORSK, Ukraine, Jan 17, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Ukrainian serviceman Volodya was conflicted about the prospect of a truce between Ukraine and Russia, which would leave his hometown and his mother, under Russian occupation.

The military driver understood that any talks remained a distant prospect but still, discussions of a ceasefire -- reignited by incoming US President Donald Trump -- weighed on him. 

"I am torn because I want our guys to stop dying, and at the same time I want to see my mother again," he told AFP in the frontline city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.

"I want to calmly enter my town under the Ukrainian flag, rather than the (Russian) tricolour flag, to be and to feel at home," he said.

The 26-year-old, who used a pseudonym to protect his mother's identity, said she had opted not to flee, to care for her frail father. 

Volodya's fraught feelings about the possibility of peace are evident across Ukraine.

Pausing the conflict along current lines would give some respite to the army and the general population exhausted after nearly three years of war.

But it would also mean ceding around 20 percent of the country's territory to Moscow -- including Volodya's hometown.
He was last there briefly in December 2021 -- just before Russia invaded -- for tea with his mother.

- 'Our peace was over' -
"My mom makes such good fried potatoes. I really miss it so much, waking up at home and going to the kitchen where she is always fumbling around," he said.

He recounted exploring the streets of his hometown in eastern Ukraine as a child and how in winter he and friends gathered in a dugout warmed by the underground pipes.

"We used to sit there from morning to evening, playing cards, eating sunflower seeds and crackers and talking about everything and nothing," he said.

That nostalgia was shared by Yuriy, a 35-year-old operations officer of the Aidar battalion.

During a recent training session, he reminisced about east Ukraine's slag heaps -- rock dumps from the mines the powered the region's economy.
"They're like mountains, standing everywhere on the horizon," the former electrician said.

"There were blooming meadows, bees flying and harvesting honey. And then rockets fell everywhere and our peace was over," he added.

His hometown of Selydove was badly damaged in battles that saw Moscow gain control over the mining hub last October.

Yuriy acknowledged it would be difficult to liberate and then rebuild his city, but did not want to lay down arms just yet.

- 'Keeping up our struggle' - 

He challenged people pushing for a ceasefire to speak with families of killed soldiers.

"They would be able to better say if we should give up 20 percent of Ukrainian land or if it's worth keeping up our struggle in the name of their guys," he said.

Speculation is building that Ukraine could be forced into giving up territory by Trump, who has boasted he could end the war quickly.

And some Ukrainians are showing readiness for territorial concessions in exchange for peace -- 38 percent in December compared to 32 percent in October, according polling by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology (KIIS).

KIIS found in October that 46 percent of Ukrainians were ready to give up the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. 

Oleksandr, a 41-year-old unit commander in Aidar who is from Crimea said Russia would use any pause to rebuild and attack with new vigour.
His belief stems partially from the Minsk agreements brokered in the Belarusian capital in 2014.

The accords froze the conflict between Kremlin-backed separatists and Kyiv, but Russia invested in its military.

That pause also helped Moscow cement its control over Oleksandr's native region of Crimea, where his family remained.

- 'I love her too' -
He has since broken off contact with them because of their pro-Kremlin views.

"We're on different sides of the barricade," he said.
Still, the first thing he would do if the territory were liberated is hug his parents and introduce them to their grandchildren, 13-year-old Sophia and six-year-old Sasha.

Volodya said he also longs for a family reunion.

He telephones his mother every few days but felt something was off in a recent conversation.

"She always tries to show restraint, but I called her and I could hear her emotions overflowing," he said.

She told him that the town had come under repeated shelling that day.
All Volodya could do was stay on the line and cheer her up.

He ended the call the same way he has since a tearful conversation on the eve of his town's capture by Russian troops.

"Every conversation we've had, she's always said she loved me. Now, I always reply that I love her too."