On Sunday, a grandmother arrived in Kharkiv – a once-vibrant city 30 kilometres from the Russian border – to visit her family.

On Monday, firefighters pulled the bodies of her eighteen-month-old granddaughter, 16-year-old grandson, and their mother and father from the smouldering rubble of their apartment block.

Iranian-made kamikaze drones, fired by Russia, had speared the residential building from every angle in the early hours of the morning. The grandmother’s fate remains unclear, but police expect to identify her as one of the many bodies found in the ruins.

“We have become accustomed to war,” wrote Serhiy Bolvinov, Kharkiv’s top police investigator, on social media.

“But after attacks like [this], words fail us.”

Thousands of kilometres away from the war zone, the world has been closely watching this week’s high-level ‘peace talks’ in the U.S.

In Alaska, the Trump administration rolled out a red carpet (literally) for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Back in D.C, the White House played host to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a troupe of European leaders.

Today, we’ll unpack the latest developments on the push for peace in Ukraine.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

An initial blitz of bombs, strikes, and tanks rolling into Ukrainian cities has largely turned into a war of attrition, where both sides have made few advances and are trying to wear each other down.

Russia’s forces now control roughly one-fifth of Ukraine, principally around the south-east Donbas region.

Violence on the frontlines has killed thousands of troops on both sides. Neither Ukraine nor Russia publish exact figures, making it difficult to estimate battlefield death tolls. 14,000 civilians have been killed over the past three years, according to United Nations (UN) monitoring agencies.

Analysts have identified a slew of reasons behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, chief among them being what some have described as Putin’s paranoia and his nerves about NATO.

Ukraine is on the fault line of a split between east and west – torn between its history as a Soviet satellite state and its recent democratic and diplomatic ties to the west.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Putin is believed to have taken “extreme measures” to isolate himself, buried in history books and spurring his paranoia that Ukraine’s western tilt posed a direct threat to Russia.

NATO is a post-World War II military alliance comprising European and North American countries. Its central creed – Article 5 – states that an attack on one is an attack on all. For example, if an army attacks France (a member), then all 32 NATO countries would respond.

In 2008, NATO allies told Ukraine it could join the alliance once it met certain conditions, including a sweep of democratic reforms.

Putin has long opposed Ukrainian NATO membership.

American spending to assist Ukraine’s defence rose to $US175 billion ($AU272 billion) under the former Biden administration.

Public opinion revealed Americans support the defence of Ukraine against Russian aggression, but an increasing number of people believed the U.S. was spending “too much” on aid for Ukraine.

Trump has been promising to end conflicts around the world since he began campaigning ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

This included a vow to end the Russia-Ukraine war “within 24 hours” of being sworn back in as President.

In his victory speech on election night, Trump went a step further and declared, “I’m going to stop wars”.

So his mission became mediator-in-chief of the conflict: bringing the two sides together to negotiate an end to the war.

After months of expressing increasing frustration towards Putin, Trump and the Russian President met in Alaska.

Last weekend’s face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin lasted three hours.

Officials, Ukrainians, Russians, and anyone tracking the conflict were on the edge of their seats, waiting to hear from the two leaders.

A peace deal wasn’t reached.

So, what was said?

Putin gave a history lesson on Alaska. It was certainly an interesting place for the pair to meet – a part of the world where Russia once claimed territorial ownership, which became the 49th state of America in the late 1950s.

He talked about the “treacherous route over the vast emptiness of ice” taken by Russian and American pilots during World War Two. Putin also gave a nod to the “700 geographical names of Russian origin” in Alaska.

Trump’s remarks were more brief. No deal was brokered, he said, but “we've made some headway”.

Soon after, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed he would fly to Washington, D.C. to meet Trump.

The White House greeted Zelenskyy – who swapped out his usual military kit for a black suit, earning him a compliment from Trump.

The leaders of France, the UK, Italy, Germany, Finland, the EU, and NATO flanked Zelenskyy and joined Trump for a roundtable discussion.

There was no breakthrough agreement, even though Trump and Zelenskyy described the talks as their most successful yet.

It was a stark contrast from Zelenskyy’s last White House meeting, when he was accused of “gambling with World War Three” during a verbal confrontation with Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Attention has turned to the next steps: Trump has proposed hosting a three-way summit between Zelenskyy and Putin.

This week, we got a clearer picture of what peace could look like.

On Russia’s terms: they would maintain control over parts of eastern Ukraine, including the Donbas region already under its occupation and Crimea – a peninsula annexed in 2014, which the UN considers illegally occupied.

Ukraine’s top request is to return to its borders before Russia annexed Crimea.

Trump has indicated there would need to be “land swapping” between the two sides, meaning he would likely disagree with some of Ukraine’s terms for peace.

Ukraine is also pushing for security guarantees from the U.S.

This would require the U.S. to share its intelligence and deploy troops and equipment to help protect Ukraine against future attacks. Trump has since said he won’t send American forces to Ukraine.

The path ahead remains uncertain.

But when you see some of the world’s most powerful leaders talking about peace, it’s easy to forget about flattened buildings in Kharkiv, where bodies are still being recovered.

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