Russia’s advance and Trump’s return.

As the Russian military slowly advances into eastern Ukraine, it is unleashing a wave of human suffering in its wake.

With two months to go before a change of administration in Washington, Ukraine is grappling with two problems: how to stop the advance, and how to prepare for Donald Trump.

At a shelter in Pavlohrad, about 60 miles (100 km) west of the slowly shifting front line, evacuees from war-torn villages and towns continue to pour in.

Anastasiia Bolvihina, 31, is there with her two sons, Arseniy and Rostyslav. The family cat sleeps among the few belongings the family has managed to bring with them from the village of Uspenyuka, just outside the walled city of Pokrosk.

The family hung on to their home as long as they could, but with explosions all around, shops closed and roads cut off one by one, they finally succumbed to the inevitable. They packed a few bags, closed the door and left.

“We hoped the war would pass us by and be over soon,” Anastasia told me.

Now, after two months without electricity or Internet, she opens her laptop in bed and catches up on the news.

“We hope things will improve and the war will end,” she says when I ask about the political changes in America.

I hope the new president will be better than the current president.

In an adjoining auditorium, dimly lit and warmed by a single bar heater, the elderly are being cared for by volunteers.

It is a theater of misery, with exhausted figures sitting or lying on camp beds, some seemingly lost in thought.

Katerina Klymko, 83, from Sikhi Yali near Kurakhove – another town slowly falling to the Russians – has just arrived.

She cries briefly as she describes how her house, along with all her belongings, burned down.

“They bombed a lot,” she says of the Russian military advance. “It’s like the final judgment!”

Can Ukraine still win, I ask?

“God knows,” she sighed. “My heart hurts from what I hear. We were bombed a lot and there were many people killed.

Russia started. A massive ballistic missile attack Also overnight on the Dnipro. It was felt across the city and sent everyone, including the BBC team, into bomb shelters.

The latest decisions by the Biden administration regarding Atacms and landmines are clearly designed to help Ukraine capture both its own territory and Russia’s Kursk region.

The two could join the talks next year, if Donald Trump intends to follow the same path.

So far, the US president-elect has given little indication of how he intends to end the conflict, beyond a typically false promise to end the war in 24 hours.

From President Zelensky on down, Ukrainian politicians seem willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

“I think he’s taken a very smart approach,” former foreign minister Dmytro Koliba told me, “by clearly setting the goal – ‘I’m going to fix it’ – but without going into details.

Despite Trump’s reputation – a zero-sum deal-maker with a curious admiration for Vladimir Putin – Dmytro Koliba says people make it too easy.

“He can have a bigger picture in his head, and I’m sure it won’t just be a transaction.”

As the new administration takes shape and minds turn to how to deliver on Trump’s ambitions, the former secretary of state believes one dominant factor will drive policy.

“President Trump will undoubtedly be driven by one goal, to project his power, his leadership,” he said. “And show that he is capable of solving the problems that his predecessor failed to solve.”

Koliba believes that projecting power will mean leaning on both sides.

They say walking away from Ukraine is not an option.

“As much as the collapse of Afghanistan has hurt the Biden administration’s foreign policy credibility, if the scenario you describe is to be entertained by President Trump, Ukraine becomes his Afghanistan. will, which will have the same results.”

“And I don’t think that’s what he’s looking for.”

Late last week, President Zelensky said Kiev would like to end the war by “diplomatic means” in 2025.

He said the war would end “soon” with Trump in the White House.

It was classic Zelinsky: part flattery, part challenge.

For many of those who have paid the heaviest price for Russia’s aggression, peace cannot come soon, even if it means more sacrifices.

In Dnipro, a steady stream of wounded soldiers comes through the gates of one of the country’s many artificial intelligence centers.

Damien Dudley, 27, lost a leg when his unit came under missile attack 18 months ago.

He is already used to his carbon fiber limbs and is even training for next year’s Invictus Games. But when it comes to war, he is less optimistic.

“I think there are probably two regions. [Donetsk and Luhansk] From us, and Crimea will be taken away,” he says.

“I am not sure we will push them back from these areas. We have neither men nor weapons.”

Opinion polls paint a mixed picture but show that more and more Ukrainians want the war to end quickly. Especially here in the East, where sirens go off several times a day.

A growing minority say they are willing to leave the area to secure peace.

“I think the war will end,” said Andrey Petrenko, 28, when I asked him what he expected when Donald Trump took office.

After losing a leg three months ago, Andrey is getting his first prosthetic.

“Either they agree and go to the 1991 borders, or the territories surrender. The bottom line is that the war ends and people stop dying.