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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is under pressure to accept a new peace plan. The Trump administration and an adviser to Russian leader Vladimir Putin drafted it without Ukrainian input. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports on reaction to the plan in western Ukraine at the site of yet another devastating Russian attack.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: We're arriving - oh, my God - at the site of where this building was just hit with a missile. (Vocalizing). It's just an incredible scene. There's this apartment building with jagged bricks just in the empty sky. I mean, the missile just blew the top off this building. There are clothes blown into the trees.
(SOUNDBITE OF BULLDOZER SIFTING THROUGH RUBBLE)
BEARDSLEY: A bulldozer is sifting through the rubble looking for bodies. Thirty-four people were killed in the attack on this residential building, including several children. It came in the early morning hours of November 19, about the same time the U.S.-Russian draft peace plan appeared. Ashen-faced onlookers gather behind a growing mound of candles, flowers and teddy bears on the sidewalk.
NILA CHURA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: Seventy-four-year-old Nila Chura, who lives a few streets over, describes the sounds of the missiles and drones that night. She says the air raid alarms began sounding around 3 a.m. The terrifying attack lasted five hours.
INGA SHKARUPA: I thought I'm going to be dead in a few minutes because you don't really know where's it flying from, but it's really close, and you don't know where exactly is it going. But...
BEARDSLEY: That's gym teacher Inga Shkarupa (ph). This western Ukrainian town lacks air defenses because it isn't regularly targeted. But residents say nowhere in Ukraine is safe. Kateryna Rushkov (ph) cowered in an underground shelter with her two children.
KATERYNA RUSHKOV: I have a 6-year daughter. All the time, she screamed, mom, mom, we're dying. You know, it's really hard, but it's more harder about these kids who died for nothing.
BEARDSLEY: Rushkov says Ukraine is being pressured to sign its capitulation. The plan, as first presented, calls for Kyiv to give up important territory in the east that Russia has been unable to take in four years of fighting. Ukraine would have to cap the size of its military. There are no such constraints on Russia, which would be welcomed back into the G8 and sanctions dropped. Shkarupa says she just doesn't get it.
SHKARUPA: It feels like Russia a victim, not us. We paying the price. People are dying. Cities are getting destroyed and everybody's doing nothing towards Russia, nothing.
BEARDSLEY: For the Europeans, the plan reads like a Kremlin wish list, and they're trying to alter it while avoiding confrontation with the Trump administration. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said any proposal to end the war must have the agreement of Ukraine and Europe, given the repercussions for European security.
OLEKSANDER HUMENIUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: "My family died here," says businessman Oleksander Humeniuk (ph), looking up at exposed tile of the sheared off top floor where his mother and sister used to live in a small apartment. Humeniuk says Russia will not stop unless it's defeated.
HUMENIUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: "They haven't stopped for 300 years," he says. Ukraine is being pressured at a time when the country is weakened by a corruption scandal involving the state nuclear company and some of Zelenskyy's advisers. People here say they want to believe in their president despite the scandal. Mother Kateryna Rushkov says the volunteers here are testament to Ukraine's spirit and resilience.
RUSHKOV: I believe in every person who working here right now, you know? I believe in these people. I live here. My kids live here.
BEARDSLEY: And she says, we want to stay in our city and our country, which is Ukraine.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Ternopil. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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