"I have no plans for the future at all," says Oleksandr Bezhan, standing next to an empty, frozen paddock where he used to work as a fisherman on the bank of the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine. "If I wake up in the morning, that's already pretty good."
Malokaterynivka sits just 15km (9 miles) north of the front line in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region.
If US President Donald Trump succeeds in halting the war, Malokaterynivka is hoping to end up on the right side of that front line.
I last visited this area in 2023, when Ukraine launched a much-anticipated counter-offensive.
At the time, Ukrainians dared to dream of winning this war. They had, after all, won the battle of Kyiv and liberated swathes of territory elsewhere.
But 18 months on, thunder-like artillery exchanges reflect the failure of that operation, and Russia's dominance.
The front line here is broadly in the same place - but the broad expanse of river has gone.
The barren surroundings reflect the frozen limbo Ukraine finds itself in. The White House wants to end the war, but it's not as simple as blowing a full-time whistle.
The exposed riverbed separates our location from Russian-occupied territory. Distant sunlight bounces off the metallic Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in Moscow's grip since 2022.
Washington's vision of it, along with battlefield realities, means Russia will likely keep hold of the Ukrainian land it's seized.
Instead, Donald Trump has denied Kyiv's dream of joining the Nato alliance as he focuses on Russia.
There are feelings of betrayal. Commentators criticise either Ukrainian President Zelensky or the new foreign policy of its biggest ally.
Malokaterynivka's challenge of finding a new purpose lies at the heart of Ukraine's future.
Villagers gather for the funeral of a local soldier, also named Oleksandr. Half of the graves in the cemetery are freshly dug.
"I don't have hope for a ceasefire," says his widow Natalya, who nevertheless wants to be proved wrong.
Alongside the river is a disused rail line surrounded by barbed wire.
Trains used to run all the way to Crimea in the south.
The peninsula's eleven years of Russian occupation makes it hard to imagine.
President Zelensky insists he won't sign any agreement which doesn't include Ukraine, so does Lyudmyla trust him to get a deal which protects her?
If Donald Trump does bring peace to Ukraine, it would be welcomed in many quarters.
But as things stand, any relief would quickly be swamped by the unanswered questions of how a ceasefire would hold and who would enforce it.
Additional reporting by Svitlana Libet, Toby Luckhurst and Hanna Chornous
