Inside a packed Minnesota State Capitol Saturday, hundreds of voices were raised in song and in hope, urging continued support for Ukraine.

“A simple peace deal does not mean anything to the Russians,” declared one speaker. “This cycle must stop.”

Outside, a giant Ukrainian flag was unfurled on the Capitol steps.

“We want the American people to continue to support Ukraine,” says Oleksiy Khrystych from Apple Valley. “We want the truth to be heard.”

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked Khrystych, who moved to Minnesota from Ukraine in 2001, if his home country could win the war against Russia without U.S. aid.

“It’s hard to predict,” he noted quietly. “I don’t think so, I think we need everyone’s support. Everybody, including America. We need help, we need help, definitely.”

A tense exchange at the White House in February between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ended a proposed deal that would have given the U.S. a 50% stake in Ukraine’s mineral wealth in exchange for continued financial and military aid.

Now, Trump is pressing Russia for a 30-day temporary ceasefire and threatening sanctions if that doesn’t happen.

“Now we’re going to see if Russia is there, and if they’re not, it’s going to be a very disappointing moment for the world,” the president said Thursday.

Ukraine has agreed to that ceasefire, and European leaders are challenging Putin to sign on as well.

The Russian president says he’s in favor of a deal but is asking for guarantees that Ukraine doesn’t mobilize or train forces or receive weapons.

A prisoner exchange, the return of forcibly displaced Ukrainian children and a commitment to signing the minerals deal are all part of the proposed agreement.  

But Zelenskyy is accusing the Kremlin of ‘dragging’ out the war.

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“Strong measures are needed to take even the few steps towards ending the war,” he said during a call with 30 world leaders Saturday. “This includes sanctions. Sanctions against Russia must not only be maintained, but continuously strengthened, and I ask you to take these steps and work with your partners on this.”

For Mike Chrun from Taylors Falls, who was at the Capitol Saturday, this is all very personal.  

“Both of my folks grew up in Ukraine,” he declares. “They suffered under Russia; they were taken captive by the Nazis.”

Chrun says his parents, Fred and Dora, were POWs and were forced into slave labor for several years during World War II.

After the war, he explains, they lived in a displaced persons camp for five years before moving to Kennedy, Minnesota in 1951.

Chrun says he still has hope for his ancestral homeland.

“I think if the European Union stands with them, Canada and if the U.S. will support them, I think Putin would give up,” he says. “He’s already been weakened tremendously by this war.”

Amid all this, the fighting in Ukraine continues, with both sides ramping up attacks in the contested border region of Kursk.

Shellene Johnson, who came to the Capitol from Shafer, hopes public pressure will make a difference and that both the White House and the Kremlin are listening.

“Zelenskyy’s a true leader in the world, he’s fighting for democracy,” she says. “I think there’s a lot of people in this country that support Ukraine, and I think their voices are only getting louder.”