Tired Ukrainian troops on the frontline are not hopeful of any outcome from a peace conference arranged by Kyiv in Switzerland.

Some 90 countries and global institutions are convening at a time when outgunned Ukrainian troops are exhausted from two years of war with Russia.

Sergiy, a deputy commander of a tank brigade deployed to the eastern Donetsk region where fighting is fiercest, said that when powerbrokers sit down to really thrash out an end to fighting, it probably won’t be at a plush summit.

“Politics is politics,” the 36-year-old told Agence France-Presse, skeptical that the meeting would improve the situation in the Donetsk.

“Good weapons will do something, that’s for sure.”

Danylo, a 23-year-old drone operator also said the gathering would not bring about “drastic” changes.

“It’s probably more of a symbolic event,” he said.

The army’s mobilization drive is instilling fear among the population that fathers, husbands and sons will be dispatched to the front while Russian strikes that knocked out or hindered electricity supplies for millions of Ukrainians, left people in the dark for hours on end.

700,000 Russian troops

Meanwhile, Ukrainian shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino killed five people and wounded several, the governor of the region of Belgorod said on Saturday.

“Four bodies were recovered from the rubble” of a partially collapsed house in Shebekino, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who added that another woman had died in hospital.

Six civilians were wounded in the late evening shelling, the governor said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on television Friday in Moscow that almost 700,000 Russians are fighting in Ukraine.

“In the zone of our special military operation there are almost 700,000,” Putin said during a televised meeting with decorated participants from the offensive.

In December at his end-of-year press conference, Putin gave the figure of 617,000 taking part in combat operations. He said that of those, 244,000 had been mobilized.

The latest figure on troop numbers comes after Russia in May launched a major ground assault in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.

EU accession

In Brussels, Belgium, ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 member states on Friday “agreed in principle” on beginning accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova on 25 June, the Belgian presidency of the EU’s Council said.

“Ambassadors agreed in principle on the negotiating frameworks for the accession negotiations of Ukraine and Moldova. The Belgian presidency will call the first intergovernmental conferences on 25 June,” it said.

EU ministers are due to formally approve the decision during a meeting on June 21. In the Netherlands, parliament must also give its consent.

Ukraine and fellow ex-Soviet neighbour Moldova applied to join the EU shortly after Russia launched its all-out invasion in February 2022.