Sawt Falasteen - Ukrainian soldiers' lovers kept waiting as war drags on

Like thousands of others, the Russian invasion has turned her love life into an anxious wait for messages, calls and short-lived reunions.

Holding little faith in US President Donald Trump's promise to end the war, they are stuck in what Halushka called a constant state of waiting.

"I've got a new social role," the 28-year-old told AFP in a Kyiv park. "I am now a woman who waits".

Halushka struggled with the idea of sitting still.

She worked two jobs and volunteered as a paramedic -- away from the front since she suffered a severe injury.

"That constant waiting state is quite stressful ... you wind yourself up thinking something bad happened. You just sit there, waiting for a call, waiting for a message," she said.

She had already lost one boyfriend in the war, killed at the front.

That pain would come back anytime her current partner did not answer for a day or two.

"You live with the constant understanding that he may go to fight and not return. You constantly live with the idea that he may die and you'll never see his body again," she said.

- 'Live in the real world' -

"Your brain never comes up with anything good. It doesn't imagine that your boyfriend shot Putin, or that the war is over," she added.

Trump, who once boasted he could end the war in hours, is pushing for a peace deal that would, in theory, offer Ukrainian soldiers the chance to return home.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced a short Easter truce to run over the weekend.

But he rejected a US call for an unconditional and full ceasefire last month and there is no sign Moscow and Kyiv are anywhere close to striking an agreement.

Daria Yedamova, whose husband Artur was serving in the northeastern Kharkiv region, said she was also pessimistic.

"I am hoping for him to come back, I wish we could have a forever peace. But we live in the real world," she said.

Cheered on by Artur in video calls, she has been knocking down walls to renovate a flat they bought in Kyiv, all while taking care of their two young children.

"We're laying the groundwork for the future," she said.

But with no permanent end to the fighting in sight, the separation is taking its toll.

Lina, the couple's 11-month-old daughter, does not always recognise her father on the rare occasions they meet up.

He enlisted just a few months after she was born.

- 'Dad will come' -

Artur's son, three-year-old Taras, constantly longs for him.

"He says, 'Dad will come', 'we will sleep together', or 'we will read together'," Yedamova told AFP.

Families of serving soldiers regularly travel across the country for short reunions.

Halushka's boyfriend is given occasional permission to come to Kyiv on leave.

She was looking forward to honouring a small tradition when she next saw him -- stir-fried chicken Gong Bao at a food court in Kyiv, followed by take-out strawberry cake covered in pink icing.

She held on to such fleeting moments of happiness against a darkening future.

Halushka is among the growing numbers of Ukrainians anxious at Trump's overtures towards Moscow.

The US leader has pressured Kyiv into making concessions and is refusing to offer US-backed security guarantees that Ukraine sees as vital.

The share of Ukrainians believing Trump's election was bad for Ukraine surged from 21 percent in December 2024 to 73 percent in March 2025, according to the Kyiv Institute for Sociology.

"I feel anger and hatred that we have to communicate with stupid people" Halushka said.

Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk have probably "never opened a history book in their lives," she blasted.

"When Russia attacks us again –- and it's a matter of when, not if -- then my boyfriend's chances to survive will be even lower," she said.

F.Qawasmeh--SF-PST