Following a screening of ’20 Days in Mariupol’, they addressed Trump’s war-ending efforts.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: October 29, 2025
Host: On Tuesday, Sarasota’s Ukrainian community packed the Fogartyville Community Center to watch a documentary about the bloody siege of a Ukrainian city now occupied by Russian troops. The screening of Twenty Days in Mariupol was framed by a photo exhibition about war-torn Ukraine by local photographer Alan Mestel. And it was followed by a four-member panel discussing the war in Ukraine. We have the details.
Photo by Alan Mestel
[Air raid siren]
Mstyslav Chernov: Someone once told me wars don’t start with explosions.
[Panicked yells]
Mstyslav Chernov: They start with silence.
[Russian speech]
Mstyslav Chernov: Russians have entered the city.
Johannes Werner: This is the soundtrack from the documentary and the voice of Mstyslav Chernov. The AP camerographer put together the film after he and his crew spent 20 days in the besieged port city and managing to smuggle out the footage in a Red Cross convoy.
Photo by Alan Mestel
It shows many instances of civilians dying, including in a maternity hospital that was shelled. At one point, an operating surgeon at a hospital demanded Chernov to keep filming to show the world what civilians in Mariupol were subject to.
Mestel has toured Ukraine five times, mostly trimming his lens on civilians. He also spent time along the 600-mile frontline. His take on the bloody military stalemate, in which Russian troops have managed to take only minimal land lately, despite massive losses of soldiers: Ukrainian soldiers are hanging in there, because they’re motivated.
Photo by Alan Mestel
Asked by an audience member why he thinks—unlike with the war in Gaza—public protests about Ukraine have been minimal, Mestel blamed the short attention span of the U.S. public.
Following the film, the panelists—all in agreement over the need to support Ukraine—laid out why Russia has to be restrained and best ways to help.
Asked for their reactions to Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war, Bohdana Puzyk said she does not see any discernible goals or strategy behind the Trump administration’s peacemaking efforts. Puzyk represented the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America on the panel.
Bohdana Puzyk
Bohdana Puzyk: He met a war criminal on the red carpet. I understand politics, and politics has nothing to do with patriotism. I believe Trump’s attitude towards stopping the war will only become a reality when there’s something in it for him. Currently, this war is not affecting him or policies that he’s interested in. Putin being eliminated, which many feel is the solution to this, truly is not, because he’s the face of the evil being perpetrated, but he’s got a cabinet full of supporters. Having him go away is not gonna end this. It’s the attitude that Russia cannot have what they want.
JW: Ihor Rakowsky, a retired finance lawyer, said he believes unless there’s something in it for Trump himself, the peacemaking efforts will fizzle.
Ihor Rakowsky
Ihor Rakowsky: Trump is just such an incorrigible narcissist. All he wants is that Nobel Peace Prize, and he’s so frustrated because both Putin and Zelensky are unwilling to do what he wants to do, which is wrap this war up so he can wrap up his prize. Depending on who he’s talking to one day—he’s talking to Zelensky and saying, “Why don’t you just accept Russian terms?” All he wants is the war ended on some terms that will allow him to get his Nobel Peace Prize.
JW: Rather than focusing on the Trump administration, Rakowsky suggested people willing to help focus on Congress, urging them to call their representatives and senators. Puzyk mentioned a pending U.S. Senate resolution that would demand Russia return children from Ukraine taken away during occupation.
This has been Johannes Werner, reporting for WSLR News.
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