After President Trump met with Zelensky at the White House, and talks with Putin are currently on hold, there are many unknowns about how the Ukraine War will end. Zelensky presses for U.S. Tomahawk Missiles while reports that Russia already lost 281,550 soldiers in the first eight months of this year, indicate Kyiv may have the advantage in a war of attrition, despite having less manpower. Lost in all these details is the resounding question of how Ukraine has persevered for almost four years. Having just returned home from a week as a citizen journalist in the company of Ukrainian soldiers, many not much older than me, I learned that Trump’s hand at the bargaining table is greatly bolstered by Ukrainian resilience and initiative. Their stubborn battlefield resistance could bring the Kremlin to the table and set the stage for President Trump to become the frontrunner for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Hold, Advance, or Retreat
I went to Ukraine as a witness, to listen, learn, and hear the stories of those on the front. Sitting across from me, a young helicopter pilot described the war from above. Flying an aging Soviet-era Mi-8, he found himself locked by a Russian missile hundreds of meters above the ground. With only seconds to act, he plunged the aircraft into a swamp, submerging the rotors in freezing water to throw off the missile. The gamble worked. The missile screamed overhead and exploded harmlessly in the distance. His crew, soaked and freezing, laughed uncontrollably at the fact that they were still alive.
His story became instantly familiar. Ukrainian orders are deceptively simple. Hold the line. Advance if you can. Retreat if you must. But the how is left to the soldiers themselves. Freedom to adapt and determination to survive has produced extraordinary stories — from Kyiv to Kharkiv to Kherson.
I listened as an officer of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army -- call sign “Thirteenth” -- described the first days after the February 24, 2022, invasion. His unit was tasked with stopping the Russian column from reaching Brovary, the gateway to Kyiv. On paper, it was impossible: 360 armored vehicles and tanks against a handful of mortars and RPGs. The men dug into frozen soil and waited. Hours passed in silence until the column rumbled into view. They let the lead vehicles pass, then struck the middle and rear in groups of four. Within minutes, the Russians were trapped; because the tanks sat on high ground, their guns couldn’t angle low enough to return fire. By nightfall, the Russian advance was shattered; the city was safe.
It was a crystal-clear lesson in initiative: higher command ordered them to hold the line, but survival depended entirely on how they responded to the moment.
Another commander described a darker stand in the Donbas region. The 24th Brigade was ordered to retreat. He alone decided to lead his 100 soldiers into Russian fire to protect their brothers in arms’ retreat. Outnumbered and undersupplied, they refused to abandon the line, knowing that if they broke, the Russians would pour through. The line was pushed back and the Russians advanced a bit, but the company held the line and made sure not a single member of the 24th Brigade lost their life amid their retreat.
David Against Goliath
Even in a war that has birthed the most extensive use of high-tech drones, initiative not just armaments is consistently the difference between annihilation and survival. Freedom to adapt makes Ukrainian units so strong. Drones rewrite the nature of war, but nothing without the sheer will of ordinary people to resist.
Bravery comes at a cost. Soldiers admitted that nothing could have prepared them for the first time they saw a comrade killed. They keep going to ensure that Russia never gets to steal their future.
What I absorbed from Marines, artillery officers, pilots, special forces, and volunteers, seared in me their commitment to a fight neither abstract nor distant, lived minute to minute, measured in blood, grief, and pride. President Trump takes risks for peace. Anyone who has seen up close what I witnessed in Ukraine knows his diplomatic hand is strengthened by the record of Ukrainians who sacrifice for a cause bigger than themselves and have proven to be a David whom Goliath can’t finish off on the battlefield. That’s one reason why the path to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo may well run through Kyiv.
Ahvish Roy is an independent journalist who visited the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions of Ukraine.
