'We cannot wait for peace before beginning to rebuild'

As fears mount for Ukraine's future in light of the re-election of Trump, Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what the coming year could hold

- Tom Watling

After nearly three years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the future of the country's fight against Vladimir Putin's forces is more uncertain than ever.

Donald Trump's sweeping victory in the US presidential race, off the back of promises to end the war in Eastern Europe in 24 hours seemingly even if that means forcing Kyiv to cede territory to Russia - appears to spell the end of the West's longheld policy of helping Ukraine to defeat Putin entirely.

Negotiations with Russia, after years of silence, are back on the agenda.

This is causing significant stress in Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. As Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, puts it: "The world needs to understand how crucial it is not to end the war on any idea of negotiating with Russia." Others in Kyiv are cautiously hopeful that Trump will quickly realise Putin will not be persuaded to stop his invasion, and that the incoming US president will then respond by substantially increasing American support for Ukraine beyond what the Biden administration has been willing to countenance.

Former US and British officials have discussed with The Independent how negotiations could play out, but in the meantime, Trump's great solution to "end the killing" remains a mystery to everyone - potentially even the president-elect himself.

While the world waits to see what transpires, Ukraine is already facing an array of problems.

Military and frontline

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted that the country's military currently lacks the strength to retake the nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine occupied by Russia in the south and east.

Some of that could be blamed on the US and Europe's tentative approach to supporting Ukraine - one that has seen plenty of rhetoric, but has been tempered by a desire to avoid pushing Russia into escalating the war.