The volunteer civil defense force, which is 90% women, is primarily tasked with defending the skies, shooting down the Iranian-made Shahed drones that arrive nearly every night.
In a snow-covered forest outside Kyiv, the “Witches of Bucha” are training to defend their city from a constant bombardment of Russian missiles and drones.
The volunteer civil defense force, which is 90% women, is primarily tasked with defending the skies, shooting down the Iran-made Shahed drones that arrive nearly every night.
Most of the women come from Bucha, the city outside of Kyiv that was occupied by Russian forces in the early weeks of the war and where some of the worst atrocities of the invasion took place, including the execution of civilians in the street.
Tetyana said that her husband and brother have both been killed in the war, and that her nephew in the army has been reported missing.
“My whole word was destroyed,” said Tetyana, 41, who, in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol, declined to give her last name. Volunteering with the group gives her an outlet to channel her rage, she said.
The group is already going on patrols, but like so many others in Ukraine, they expect that the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces may soon be on hold, though not done for good.
As Ukraine’s military struggles with battlefield setbacks and dwindling morale, the specter of a peace deal promised by President-elect Donald Trump has added another layer of uncertainty.
While Ukrainians increasingly want the war — now past 1,000 days — to stop, many also fear a truce would represent an opportunity for Putin to regroup and strike Ukraine again when he sees fit.
“I don’t believe that this war can be stopped with the negotiations,” said Valentina, a 49-year-old grandmother and middle school math teacher from the volunteer group whose son and son-in-law are fighting on the front lines.
“Putin can’t be trusted,” she told NBC News, dressed head-to-toe in camouflage and training in near freezing conditions. “In three to five years, he’ll come back.”
The fighters believe a deal is coming, but remain resolute in their belief that the fight is far from over.
And while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sounded positive that his weary nation’s fight may “end sooner” with Trump in the White House, the women’s attitude is shared by many others here, from makeshift volunteer units to top military officials.
“We can’t surrender,” said U.S. Army veteran Miro Popovich, a Ukrainian American combat volunteer who has fought on or near the front lines since the war began. “We can’t surrender territory, we can’t surrender people, because our existence is on the line once again.”
A recent Gallup poll nonetheless found that 52% would like to see their country negotiate an end to the war as soon as possible, and that many are less hopeful about the future than a year earlier.
Low on morale and manpower, Kyiv’s troops have been on the defensive for months as Russia’s military pushes to retake lost territory or seize new land behind a wave of drones, missiles and infantry.
But if Ukraine is to enter warily into negotiations, it wants to do so from a position of strength.
A source in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told NBC News that Ukraine still controlled over 300 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region, and that airstrikes deep inside Russian territory were helping “to destroy Russia military infrastructure” after Ukraine’s allies, particularly the U.S., relaxed restrictions on Kyiv’s use of Western weapons.
Trump, for his part, has never explained how he would try to break the diplomatic deadlock between the two sides, but his public comments and determination to seek a rapid resolution have raised fears that his return to power will prove favorable to the Kremlin.
Meeting with Zelenskyy in September, Trump said he would work to secure a deal “that’s good for both sides.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov said Monday that while officials in Trump’s circle were speaking about a potential peace plan, the Biden administration was escalating the conflict.
“Those who have been nominated for future positions in the future administration, the word ‘peace’ or ‘peace plan’ is being heard,” he said. “No such words are being heard from the current administration while provocative escalatory actions continue.”
Putin said in June that in order to start peace talks he wanted Ukraine to drop its NATO membership ambitions and to hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow.