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On the first Saturday of Ukraine’s fourth year resisting Russia’s full-scale war of aggression, clergy from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church led a procession of Bucha residents along the length of Yablunska Street, the site of some of the earliest atrocities of the war. With more than a hundred people in tow, the somber procession braved the icy wind, stopping at 14 locations where civilians had been executed by occupying Russian soldiers to offer prayers and read the names of the victims.
“We’re here to remember the most horrible morning that has ever happened in Bucha,” one member of the clergy told the crowd. “There are some people pretending that this is not happening, and this is why we do this; they need to see it.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been on the other side of the world, summoned to Washington, D.C., to sign a controversial deal with President Trump that would determine the future of almost all of Ukraine’s natural resources. However, over the course of roughly ten minutes, in a remarkable display of ego-driven hostility toward the embattled Ukrainian leader, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance launched a barrage of condescending chastisement after Zelensky suggested the need for external security guarantees in diplomatic efforts to negotiate a ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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For Bucha survivor Vira Katanenko, a 65-year-old retired math teacher and participant in the sorrowful procession, the spectacle of Trump and Vance attacking Zelensky for questioning Vance—someone known for telling Sieg-Heiling Steve Bannon that he doesn’t “really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another”—was confirmation that the United States under Trump is not to be relied on.
“I distinguish between Trump, his team, and the American people. Trump’s team—they have their own philosophy. They think Putin is a good guy, and, well, you know, they are both ‘good guys’,” she explained sarcastically.
“Everyone I know was completely outraged by yesterday’s conversation.”
Friday’s meeting was the culmination of weeks of pressure by the Trump administration to force Ukraine to surrender control over its natural resources. Over the last month, Trump began publicly calling for repayment for military assistance provided to Ukraine under the Biden administration, alternately demanding $500 billion or half of Ukraine’s mineral wealth. The $500 billion figure is hundreds of billions of dollars more than what the U.S. government itself has tallied as the total amount allocated for aid to Ukraine.
According to the government’s own interagency oversight group, Congress has allocated $183 billion for Ukraine since the 2022 invasion. Of this, $65.9 billion worth of military assistance was transferred to Ukraine, while $58 billion was actually spent domestically on U.S. defense contracts.
The deal Zelensky was expected to sign Friday contained no explicit security guarantees from the United States should Russia choose to break a hypothetical ceasefire— a primary concern for the Ukrainian government and a population that has endured extreme violence at the hands of Russian invaders in places like Bucha and across the country, where numerous war crimes have been documented.
