Frontline Sloviansk residents share cautious hopes for 2026 amid continued Russian shelling

Описание: (1 Jan 2026)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4627257

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sloviansk, Ukraine - 31 December 2025
1. Market stalls destroyed after an aerial bomb hit it on 29 December
2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vitaliy (no last name given), 47, shoe seller at the local market: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS PART OVERLAID BY SHOT3++
"Well, thank God it was Monday, at least there weren't many people around as it was a day off. Otherwise, if it had been a working day, it would have been a mass grave. The market is the market; people always shop here. Especially before the New Year, people buy food for the table."
3. People buying food at market
4. Wide of market
5. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Olena (no last name given), 49, clothes seller at the local market: ++SOUNDBITE STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND IS PART OVERLAID BY SHOT6++
"I want to live in my city, on my land, you understand? And nothing depends on us, absolutely nothing. Because people, as recent events show, people are nobodies. They crush people just like they crush ants."
6. “Walk of Fame” exhibition, dedicated to fallen Ukrainian soldiers, in the central part of the city of Sloviansk

STORYLINE:
As residents of the Ukrainian frontline city of Sloviansk approach the New Year under continued Russian shelling, locals hoped for a return to normality in 2026 while describing a life shaped by constant uncertainty and loss.

In the city's markets and streets, people discuss their expectations for the coming year, balancing hopes for peace with the reality of living under near-daily attacks.

"I want to live in my city, on my land, you understand?" said marlet trader Olena.

Some say they have learned not to plan too far ahead, while others cling to small signs of normal life as an act of resilience.

Despite the ongoing war, Sloviansk continues to function — markets remain open, residents go to work, and conversations about the future persist, even as the sound of explosions remains part of daily life.

The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbor’s land by force.

Negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, however, including whose forces withdraw from where in Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. Trump noted that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations could still collapse.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas, a vital industrial region in eastern Ukraine.

AP Video shot by Nikoletta Stoyanova

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