Endurance
Will Trump end the war in Ukraine?
As the third anniversary looms, Trump vows to end the Ukraine war. ABC Four Corners investigates if peace is possible, meeting political leaders and achieving extraordinary access to the frontlines. From an underground bunker, an elite Ukrainian drone unit hunt and kill enemy soldiers. Meanwhile Russia is throwing everything it has at Ukraine in relentless, suicidal pushes that Ukrainian soldiers call "meatwaves".
“The war shows that international rules no longer exist. This is a conflict about dominance, about who will exist: it is a conflict about the future.” According to Zelenskyy's advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine has transformed the way the world understands warfare. From having no drone capability before the war, Ukraine now produces over four million a year. Drone factory CEO Mykola explains their power, "drones carry two and a half kilograms of explosives...they could destroy almost everything". Former software engineer Skuba now commands a killer drone unit, launching as many as 40 attacks at Russian soldiers daily. Yet the destructive power of the weaponry which both sides have developed at breakneck speed, has of course also had severe impacts on civilian life. Peace is long overdue. American diplomat Fred Fleitz states: "a solution Ukraine can accept probably won't be possible until Putin leaves the political scene". But with Trump’s unpredictable approach to the war, the future Podolyak speaks of, hangs perilously in the balance.
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