CLEARWATER, Fla — As the world watches President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in person for the first time since 2019, Ukrainian's right here in the Tampa Bay area are watching anxiously.
"We all hope for a miracle, but I don't think that they believe that something could be, could be, you know, achieved, to be honest," says Iryna Karavan, who was born in Ukraine but moved to Tampa Bay in 2010.
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Karavan is also the president of Branch 124 of the Ukrainian Women's League of America.
She says her community sees today's meeting as the right step forward, but until Ukraine has a seat at the table, no peace deal can be signed.
"Ukraine and Russia must be the ones who sign this agreement," says Karavan.
Karavan still has family living in western Ukraine, she says they have been safe, but the war makes everyone anxious.
"Thankfully western part of Ukraine is in less trouble, I would say, than all of the other eastern part of Ukraine, but still people living under a lot of stress everywhere, whole Ukraine," Karavan says.
At the end of the day, the community also feels the fighting could be stopped if Russia were to stop it.
"Who is the aggressor? Who is the obsessor? Russia is, not the Ukraine. Russia can stop the invasion by leaving Ukrainian territory and by recognizing Ukraine as a sovereign nation, and all this horror could be stopped," says Karavan.
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