In Alaska, Trump met with war criminal Putin. Official smiles, a red carpet — and no results. The world saw that peace was not achieved, but a new format emerged: peace on the aggressor’s terms.

The truth is simple: you cannot negotiate with a liar whose only goal is your destruction. Every “guarantee” from Moscow is just another trap. Every so-called “peace plan” is simply the next stage in their war.

Ukrainians understand this. We have paid for this knowledge in blood. The world must understand it too — because every time someone bargains away our territories for an illusion of peace, it’s not just Ukraine they endanger. It’s the entire principle that aggressors cannot be rewarded.

To grasp the full absurdity of what’s currently happening around the exchange of Ukrainian territories for other Ukrainian territories, Serhii Marchenko, in his post, suggests imagining it like this:

You live in your house — the one you were born and raised in, with all legal documents proving it’s yours.

One day, your neighbor knocks to borrow salt and knocks you out with a baseball bat. You wake up to find him drinking in your kitchen with friends.

You try to throw him out, but he barricades himself in the kitchen.

Your other neighbors avoid your eyes and say: “We’re with you, but he’s stronger... Just give him the kitchen so the fights stop. The kids are scared.”

You call the police. The officer greets your attacker like an old friend, then tells you the “deal”: Give him the kitchen, and he’ll “allow” you to use your own bathroom.

You explain you don’t need permission — it’s yours. The policeman shrugs: “On paper, yes. But in reality, he’s already taken it. Be grateful you still have the rest for now.”

Absurd? Yes. And yet — this is reality today.

But wait — we live in the real world. And right now, in this real world, the President of the United States is, behind our backs, negotiating with the war criminal Putin over how much of our land and our people to hand over to him in exchange for his promise to leave us alone.

A promise he had already made when signing the Minsk Agreements. Before that, when signing the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on May 31, 1997. And even earlier, when he promised to be a security guarantor for Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994.

In this real world, absurdity is not just possible — it is happening right before our eyes, starring us in the lead role.

Negotiating over our territories is negotiating over our lives. We are not a bargaining chip, not someone else’s apartment, not someone else’s kitchen. Ukraine does not trade away its future — it fights for it.

I’m sickened by how Putin is being welcomed like an honored guest: red carpets, smiles, handshakes. And when he’s asked, 'When will you stop killing civilians?' he dodges, grins, as if human lives mean nothing. It’s a damn theater of the absurd. A theater soaked in blood, fueled by indifference.