AMONG MOST OFFENSIVE OF HALF-BAKED DEMANDS WAS PUSH TO CEDE TERRITORY

Despatch from the frontline

- JOHN MARONE

AFTER nearly four years of brutal warfare that has seen their country endlessly pummelled by missiles and drones, their children hauled off to Russia, and their homes and streets darkened by strikes on power plants, Ukrainians are not so easily frightened by ultimata from the chaotic Trump administration.

Although negotiations between Kyiv and Washington continue toward reworking the administration's 28-point proposal on ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the reaction here has been one of unsurprised indignation mixed with cautious hope.

Among the most offensive of the half-baked list of demands being foisted on to Ukraine is one that they cede sovereign territory to the invader. Tetiana, a 41-year-old working mother from a suburb of Kyiv, called the 28-point plan "absurd".

She said: "It looks a lot like the ultimatum given by Hitler to Czechoslovakia in 1939, which turned out to be a pathway to war."

AGGRESSION