KYIV >> It was Victory Day here last week, with Ukrainians celebrating their country’s role in defeating the Nazis 80 years ago. But for the long line of people waiting to place red roses beside photos of Ukrainian soldiers who have died over the past decade fighting Russia, there is only war.

The scene in St. Michael’s Square, under the gold-domed cathedral, puts a lump in your throat. Nearby, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of framed photographs clustered in a forest of remembrance. Still more line the wall around the cathedral as far as the eyes can see. I’m sure Russia mourns its lost soldiers, too. They shouldn’t have invaded.

Ukrainians know that peace talk is in the air. President Donald Trump is pressing for a ceasefire, and nearly everyone I met here hopes he succeeds. But hope is not a strategy, as they say. Many officials told me bluntly that they expect Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep attacking — and the brutal conflict to go on.

Despite the terrible burden of war, the mood seems more confident than when I last visited in September, when I wrote that the country was “bleeding out.” The worst has happened: Trump has moved away from Kyiv and toward Moscow. But the front has stabilized, resolve has hardened, and Europe has stepped up with new support.

“We are bruised, but we are not broken. We are tired, but we are not exhausted,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former Ukrainian prime minister, said in his opening remarks at the Kyiv Security Forum, where I was one of the speakers.

Even if Trump cuts off U.S. military and intelligence assistance, Ukrainian officials say they will keep fighting. A senior official explained: “We are not losing. Russia is not winning. We are not under the threat of total collapse.”

A demonstration of Ukrainians’ cool nerves came at a dinner with parliamentarians Tuesday night. We were eating at a fancy Crimean Tatar restaurant when the air-raid sirens went off. “Ballistic threat. Take immediate cover,” a security alert said. The Ukrainians continued eating the dumplings, stuffed grape leaves and savory crepes. “UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) threat. Take immediate cover,” a second alert blared a minute later. The waiters had brought platters of roast duck and dorade with a white cream sauce. They were delicious.

The warnings continued, but everyone kept eating. A ballistic missile later hit a neighborhood a few miles away, security reports said. Drone attacks continued through much of the night.

Ukrainian officials are realistic about the Russian military threat. Defense officials say the Russians don’t have a personnel or morale problem. Russian drone production has increased dramatically over the past year; attacks by small drones at the front are vastly greater; so are strikes by big, Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

Several top officials made the same assessment: Putin thinks he’s winning. He has no reason to stop the war unless Trump imposes sanctions that sharply increase the price Russia pays for continuing the fight.

As Ukrainians struggled with these terrible dilemmas, current U.S. military and political officials were absent from the Kyiv forum. A NATO panel had generals and admirals from Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Latvia. But no one from America. That shocked me, frankly.

Ukrainian officials are pleased that Trump and others in his administration have begun criticizing Russia for its refusal to make compromises and that Trump has talked of imposing sanctions if Putin doesn’t soften his position. Officials said they’re ready to explore a compromise — a two-track approach that imposes a ceasefire on all fronts, as Kyiv wants — and also a discussion of long-term “root” problems, as Moscow demands.

What’s lost in the Trump administration’s peace attempt is this war’s moral dimension. Ukraine is defending itself against an unprovoked full-scale invasion. “The underlying question is whether good will triumph over evil,” argued Rob Bauer, a Dutch admiral who until January served as head of NATO’s Military Committee.

“You can’t be neutral in this war. It’s a kind of complicity,” Yatsenyuk told the forum. But that space in the middle is where Trump has been headed, at least until recently. That’s a mistake — morally as well as strategically.

Trump needs to understand that American evenhandedness won’t work. Rather than ending the war, it will prolong it. To get Putin to “yes,” Trump must say “no” to his demands. That’s the paradox that was evident here on Victory Day.

David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column for The Washington Post. His latest novel is “Phantom Orbit.” He is on X: @ignatiuspost