‘What about our lives?’: emotions run high in frontline Ukrainian city over ceding land to Russia

<p>Trump’s talk of ‘land swaps’ as a simple transaction belies grim reality of what it would mean for people in Zaporizhzhia </p><p>The city of Zaporizhzhia, an industrial hub in south-east Ukraine, is as good a place as any to grasp the stakes of freezing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine along its current frontlines, or of implementing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/12/ukraine-russia-donbas-springboard-for-war-zelenskyy">“land swap for peace” deal</a> as envisioned by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.</p><p>Since Russian troops began rolling into Ukraine in February 2022, Zaporizhzhia, with its broad avenues and Stalin-era apartment blocks, has been a 30-minute drive from the frontline. It has been under near-constant attack from missiles and drones. On Sunday, a Russian guided air bomb hit a bus station, wounding 24 people – just another day of suffering in a city that has known many of them.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/15/what-about-our-lives-emotions-run-high-in-frontline-ukrainian-city-over-ceding-land-to-russia">Continue reading...</a>