(16 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv region, Ukraine – 15 May 2025
1. Various of Valentyna, also known by call sign “Valkyrie” checking machine gun bullets
2. Mid of volunteer of air defence unit “Witches of Bucha” seating in their house in the base
3. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Valentyna, also known by call sign “Valkyrie”, a volunteer of air defence unit “Witches of Bucha”:
“Where Russia is there, I have no faith in anything, in what Russia says. Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, Ukraine is fighting, Ukraine is standing, Ukraine is with weapons.”
4. Soldiers in base
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Known by call sign “Calypso”, a commander of air defence unit “Witches of Bucha”:
“Judging by the way our neighbor behaves in general, you can never trust them in anything. And that’s why maybe there will be some kind of truce. Everyone wants it. I want it too, of course, but it’s unlikely. That’s my opinion. Hope is such an uncertain thing. We rely on our strength, not just hope that it will end in something. We already hoped once when we asked NATO to close the skies over us. So we don’t hope.”
6. Gun rack
7. Various of volunteer of air defence unit “Witches of Bucha” moving weapon cases to their house in the base
STORYLINE:
The evening before Russia and Ukraine were due to hold their first direct peace talks in three years, women volunteers of the air defence unit “Witches of Bucha” were on duty, like they are each night, in a forest in Kyiv region.
Russian drone attacks are typically more intense at night, but daytime attacks are just as deadly.
The drone unit spends entire nights driving back and forth from their base in the forest to the position.
Sometimes they stand there for hours waiting to shoot.
The night before the negotiations was quiet, and members of the unit rested in small camp houses at their forest base.
Asked about their views on a potential ceasefire, the women were doubtful any tangible results would be achieved.
“If our partners see this, they already see that they are not contractual people, that they do not fulfill their duties, that they lie, they lie openly," said Olena, also known by call sign “Akuma”, and a volunteer of the air defence unit.
"They’ve sent the second echelon delegation. They do not want peace," she added.
Another volunteer said she was cautiously hopeful.
“Hope is such an uncertain thing," said the volunteer a unit commander known by the call sign “Calypso”.
"We rely on our strength, not just hope that it will end in something. We already hoped once when we asked NATO to close the skies over us. So we don’t hope, we do.”
Russia and Ukraine are due to hold their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year war.
A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was due to meet with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.
The latest push to end the fighting got off to a rocky start on Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face.
Delegations from the two countries also flew to different Turkish cities and put together teams of significantly different diplomatic heft for possible talks.
AP Video shot by Alex Babenko
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