Behind closed doors, inside Ukraine's corridors of power, there's frenzied work underway.
Diplomats, MPs, defence officials and aides are working around-the-clock to secure a peace deal to end the war.
They're also dealing with an unpredictable US president and a seismic shift in the way America deals with Russia on the world stage.
Washington has brought Vladimir Putin in from the cold, cut Ukraine out of peace talks and Donald Trump has labelled President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator".
"Is it unhelpful? It's surprising and unexpected," Ukrainian defence official Yuriy Sak told the ABC.
"We know, and all our partners know President Zelenskyy is not a dictator and that's a fact because he was democratically elected."
Since the war broke out, Yuriy Sak has been at the forefront of Ukraine's efforts to resurrect its defence manufacturing capabilities.
The former adviser to the defence minister is now aide to the man in charge of building up Ukraine's manufacturing arsenal of weapons at home.
"The negotiating process would be more efficient if we are there at the table," he said.
"But if the US and Donald Trump believe this is the only way at this stage to keep the negotiating process going then we will be unhappy, but we can live with it as long as the final say will be for Ukraine."
He said while Ukraine won't ever accept losing territory that's currently occupied by Russia, Kyiv would be willing to take a peace deal now, if it meant returning the land in the future negotiations.
"We are aware of the fact that some of the territories we lost to the aggressor, we will have to return later, maybe through a combination of military and diplomatic means," he said.
"While at this moment in time, we will not be able to insist on this I am sure there is a wider understanding that at some point in the future we will come back to this."
As we walk through the flags of fallen soldiers in Kyiv's Maidan Square, Mr Sak reflects on the number of funerals he's attended since the war broke out.
"It's so difficult to look at kids who will never be able to get a hug from their parents," he said.
"This is what we should be talking about, not critical f***ing minerals, this is the price we've already paid."
Ukraine wants US to hear its terms
As Ukraine's biggest supplier of military and humanitarian aid, Kyiv can't afford to lose America's support if it has any chance of ending the war.
Mr Trump has been pushing for a critical minerals deal with Ukraine, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, in exchange for the aid America has already provided the war effort.
He says Mr Zelenskyy is set to visit Washington DC to sign the rare earth minerals deal.
"Without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time," Mr Trump said.
Mr Zelenskyy says his team pressed the Americans to include a line in the deal about support for security guarantees, although nothing concrete has been decided yet.
"I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it’s important that it’s there," he adds.
Ukrainian officials have been walking a diplomatic tightrope, wedged between their desires for a fair and lasting peace deal and the need to establish a working relationship with the new Trump White House.
"We need to say this is our terms. President Trump, if you want to make these negotiations yourself. Okay. Do it. But these are the terms," Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the ABC.
He's a member of Ukraine's opposition European Solidarity party and also sits on the country's delegation to Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.
"They need to know our terms, our red lines. This peace should be a real peace, not a ceasefire," Mr Goncharenko said.
He said Ukraine would never accept that its territory currently occupied by Russia is owned by Moscow and that none of the peace talks will matter unless allies offer iron-clad security guarantees that prevent Russia from invading again.
"This territory will never be accepted as Russian. Yes, they are controlled by Russia, but they illegally occupied, and the day will come when we will regain control," he said.
There's an extraordinary level of solidarity on the ground among those of opposing political persuasions.
The prevailing ambition across the country is bringing a quick end to a war that's killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians and exhausted those who've stayed.
Despite sharing plenty of differences with Mr Zelenskyy, Mr Goncharenko disagrees with Mr Trump's suggestion that he's a dictator.
"I'm not a fan of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I didn't vote for him and I'm not going to vote for him if he will run again," he said.
"But he is no dictator. He's a legitimate president of Ukraine. He was elected democratically and he continues his term because we have a martial law and we have the war.
"It's impossible to have elections in Ukraine today. Just physically impossible."
Even as a political rival critical of Mr Zelenskyy's overall handling of the country, Mr Goncharenko complimented his wartime leadership, describing him as the "embodiment of Ukrainian resistance".
Putin's 'bluff' is working
But there are growing divisions over just how much Kyiv should give up to stop the fighting and what security guarantees it needs before laying down its weapons.
"What war criminal Putin is doing, this KGB operative is just outplaying everyone, he's bluffing but his bluff is working," Ukraine's former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the ABC.
The two-term Ukrainian prime minister now works on initiatives to strengthen the country's security relationships across the world.
"We are not allowed to fall into the Russian trap, the Russian trap is just to have a temporary ceasefire, that's the Russian playbook and after the ceasefire to hold its so-called elections which will completely undermine Ukraine's stability," he said.
He believes Kyiv must quickly turn the tide with Washington.
"The reality is, we are sidelined right now, we are not at the table," he said.
"There is no other option than to just go to DC or to Brussels or to Kyiv to establish a format for the US, Ukraine and the European Union. There is no other option.
"I believe we have to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with the US government. It takes time and enormous efforts to pass these kinds of decisions."
European leaders have been gobsmacked at the pace in which Mr Trump has reshaped Washington's foreign policy from Ukraine's favour and towards Russia's orbit.
But for those in Kyiv, who watch this closely, they aren't surprised in the slightest.
"I am looking at a bunch of people who are astonished with what President Trump has said, I am not, and you know the reason why, a leopard doesn't change its spots," Mr Yatsenyuk said.
"He said everything on the campaign trail. He was very vocal, so what is the news? It was his policy, so that was largely expected.
"So instead of crying over the spilt milk, let's produce the milk, let's milk the cow and let's do our job."
Aside from American security guarantees, Ukraine also desperately wants NATO membership to bolster its European protections, if Russia was to ever invade again.
It's a reasonable assumption given that's exactly what Moscow did in 2022, eight years after annexing Crimea.
"A comprehensive peace deal is to mean Ukraine gets iron-clad security guarantees with a long-lasting security aid package with economic support for the Ukrainian budget, peacekeepers," Mr Yatsenyuk said.
Ukraine's political movers and shakers are working overtime to get a seat at the table or at least have their conditions considered.
Now more than ever, demonstrating a united front to American negotiators and the world will be critical to any possible peace deal.
As global world order shifts and those in power argue over how to reach peace, it's the Ukrainians who've lost loved ones that aren't losing sight of the sacrifices already made.
