Ukrainian mother who lost her only son fighting Russia accuses Donald Trump of ‘blackmail’ telling the US President: ‘do not force us to kneel’

A Ukrainian mother who lost her only son fighting Russia has accused Donald Trump of ‘blackmail’ and implored the US President: ‘Do not force us to kneel’.

Yuliia Piskova, 48, said Washington is ‘humiliating’ her nation after it halted weapons supply, shut down intelligence sharing and demanded Volodymyr Zelensky beg for peace.

Her son, Ruslan Piskovyi, 21, who halted a promising career in kickboxing to take up arms, was shot in the head near Bakhmut, Donetsk, on April 18, 2023.

Father Valerii Piskovyi, 53, was also fighting on the front line, but retired after the loss of their only child.

Now, after tens of thousands of Ukrainians died alongside him defending their land, Mrs Piskova asks why their most important ally is abandoning them.

Trump is forcing Zelensky to sign a lucrative minerals deal that will give Washington access to their precious metals without any security guarantees against Russia.

He has ignored pleas that Putin will simply break any ceasefire, as he has done dozens of times before, and suggested Ukrainians dying on the frontline want peace at any cost.

But the US President and his Vice President, JD Vance, have never even visited Ukraine during the war and know nothing of the sentiment of the people who back Zelensky and refuse to bow to Putin.

Yulia Piskova and Valerii Piskovyi, parents of Ruslan, pictured

Yulia said Washington is ‘humiliating’ her nation after it halted weapons supply, shut down intelligence sharing and demanded Volodymyr Zelensky beg for peace

‘What Trump is doing is blackmail,’ said Mrs Piskova, of Kyiv, when asked what she makes of Washington suspending military aid while taking no action against Putin.

‘They are forcing us, a country suffering from an aggressor, to simply fall to our knees. This is humiliating for us.

‘For me personally, as for a mother of a fallen son who went to fight from the first day of the full-scale war, and for many other families, who stood up to defend our land because we were attacked.

‘And now, with all these deaths, all the efforts of volunteers and soldiers, you are bringing us all to our knees.

‘This is wrong. We are ready for talks. The soldiers are tired – they are also ready to take some kind of pause, just to have some silence. But do not force us to kneel. We won’t kneel.’

Ruslan was a European Championship finalist and World Championship silver medallist kickboxer before he took up arms against Putin’s illegal invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainians have been fighting for the American ideals of democracy and freedom from the tyranny of Russia which moved to overthrow it after they sought closer ties with the West.

Putin underestimated Kyiv’s resistance and is also struggling to sustain the war effort.

But since coming to power, instead of leaning heavily on Moscow, Trump has instead turned his fire on Ukraine.

Pictured: The grave of Ruslan Piskovyi, who died fighting Russian troops in 2023 

He sees the minerals deal as vital to his peace plan and publicly humiliated Zelensky in the Oval Office last week for deigning to ask for security guarantees with it. Now Kyiv has been forced to grovel to accept the terms after their weapons supply and intelligence was cut off.

‘Maybe it’s a first step toward security as business partners,’ Mrs Piskova said of the deal. ‘But not in a way that Ukraine suffers from it, you know?

‘Because if we look at history, for centuries, Ukraine has always been used, humiliated in some way and we don’t want that.

‘We have a generation of young people who are fighting for justice and for their right to live here, in Ukraine.

‘And I wouldn’t want them to suffer the way our ancestors did centuries ago, to be humiliated like that.’

Trump has lashed out at suggestions he is aligning with Russia, stating that he gave Ukraine Javelins in his last term and that Russia ‘got nothing except sanctions and grief’.

Mrs Piskova said: ‘I have a question — what grief? I don’t consider that grief…

‘They are suffering? We are the ones who are suffering, we are the ones facing disaster.

‘So many families have lost their homes, some were killed along with their entire families, many have lost loved ones — a son, a husband.

‘We are at war. Do you want to stop it? Then ensure there are guarantees that they won’t attack again. Because Russia will attack.’