DOBROPILLYA, Ukraine — In this no-nonsense coal mining town, the news of the day is often discussed at a row of outdoor spigots. Townspeople fill containers with drinking water here, after the Russian invasion cut off the town’s main water supply in a nearby town.
Though the United States is 6,000 miles from this corner of eastern Ukraine, many here are following Tuesday’s presidential election closely.
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” says Volodymyr Maruch, a 45-year-old miner, as he hoists three large containers of water into his car. “What will it mean for our country’s destiny?”
Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine. Since Russian forces invaded in February 2022, the U.S. has been Ukraine’s biggest single supporter, providing more $175 billion in military, economic and humanitarian aid under President Biden.
“The new president of the United States can either strengthen support for Ukraine or weaken it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters this week. “Weakening support will allow Russia to occupy more land."
Vice President Harris has pledged to continue supporting Ukraine’s defense. Former President Donald Trump says he won’t approve more aid, but insists he can end the war “in 24 hours” if he’s elected, though he hasn’t said how.
Maruch, the coal miner, says he hopes Trump “isn’t as stupid as we think,” calling him a “fool in a special relationship with Vladimir Putin.” He believes Trump admires Putin and will let the Russian leader take over all of Ukraine.
Russian troops already occupy 80% of Donetsk, the industrial region that includes Dobropillya, and are inching closer to another coal hub, the city of Pokrovsk, which is also a key supply center for Ukrainian soldiers.
About 35,000 people live in Dobropillya and surrounding villages. The town is less than 20 miles from the front line. Russian missiles often hit it. In September, an attack trapped 151 of the town’s miners underground.
“We house many displaced people from other parts of Donetsk here in Dobropillya,” says Ihor Kurdia, a deputy in the local regional military administration. “But no one is safe from Russian missiles. Just a few days ago, one killed a 4-year-old girl.”
Kurdia, a former high school history teacher, says he knows nearly everyone in town. He waves at a young family as he walks through a largely deserted playground.
“We have actually encouraged most families to leave because it’s too dangerous here,” he says. “I worry about our people. I want to save their lives. I want this war to end so mothers do not cry in Kyiv, or even in Moscow.”
He also wants Ukraine to get its land back and believes Americans, regardless of their politics, support Ukraine’s victory. He says he welcomes whoever Americans elect.
“When there’s a new U.S. president,” he says, “I don’t believe we will lose American friends.”
Across town, at a cafe called Sunrise, owner Tetiana Regeda is less optimistic. She worries the U.S. has lost interest in Ukraine.
“I hope whoever becomes the next American president can at least get us to the negotiating table,” she says. “Everyone is tired.”
At her cafe, she hears just how exhausted Ukrainians in this part of the country are. She often hears women sobbing because their sons and husbands have been conscripted. Some have died on the front line as Russian troops advance.
“You can take back territories,” she says, “but not people's lives.”
Zelenskyy has said he is ruling out territorial concessions, no matter who the new U.S. president is. Regeda says she feels that’s not realistic.
“From the way it looks today,” she says, “I doubt we will return to our prewar borders.”
Outside Dobropillya’s hospital, medic Ilya Poltavtsev helps a young pregnant woman who has blacked out.
He lives in Myrnohrad, a nearby town that’s closer to the front line, and often evacuates Ukrainians trapped on the front line to Dobropillya.
“The civilian population suffers most,” he says. “I can’t bear it anymore.”
He says he’s even willing to make a desperate plea to Putin: “If I have to kneel and beg for the bloodshed to stop, I will do it. I will give up everything I own.”
He says the biggest contribution the new U.S. president can make is to stop the fighting by any means.
“If you have a magic pill that will end the war,” he says, “we are willing to buy it.”
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NPR producers Hanna Palamarenko and Polina Lytvynova contributed reporting from Dobropillya and Kyiv, Ukraine.
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