The advance of the Russian army in eastern Ukraine has caused another flood of human suffering.
In the coming weeks, before the change of administration in Washington, Ukraine wrestles with two problems: how to stop Russian penetration, while preparing for Donald Trump.
At the shelter in Pavlograd, about 100 kilometers west of the slowly shifting front line, evacuees are constantly arriving from war-torn villages and towns.
There is also Anastasija Boljvihina (31) with two sons, Arsenije and Rostislav.
Their cat sleeps among the few things the family managed to take with them from the village of Uspenivka, near the besieged town of Pokrovsko.
They stayed as long as they could, but with explosions all around, shops and roads closed, leaving seemed inevitable.
They packed a few bags, locked the door and left.
"We hope the war will end soon," Anastasia tells me.
They were without electricity or internet for two months, and now there is an open laptop on her bed, where she reads the news she missed.
"We hope that things will be better now and that the war will end", she answers when I ask her about the political changes in the USA.
"I hope that the new president will be better than the current one."
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In the adjacent auditorium, dimly lit and warmed by a single-rod heater, volunteers tend to elderly evacuees.
It is a room filled with misery, with still, haggard figures sitting or lying on camp beds, some clearly lost in thought.
Eighty-three-year-old Katerija Klimko, from the village of Suvi Jali near Kurahova, another small town that is slowly being taken over by the Russians, has just arrived.
She sobs briefly as she describes how her house burned down, along with all her belongings.
"They bombed us a lot," he says of the advancing Russian army.
"It was like a terrible judgment!".
Can Ukraine still win, I ask.
"God alone knows," she sighs.
"My soul hurts from what I hear. They bombed us a lot and a lot of people died there."
Russia launched a large-scale attack, shooting Dnieper with ballistic missiles.
It was felt throughout the city and forced everyone, even our BBC team, to hide in shelters.
The latest decisions of the Biden administration as far as long range missile and antipersonnel mines were apparently brought in to help Ukraine retain territory, both its own and the Kursk Oblast in Russia.
Both could become the subject of negotiations next year, if that is the direction Donald Trump wants to follow.
So far, the US president-elect has given very little indication of what his plan is for ending the conflict, other than a flamboyant promise to end the war within 24 hours.
Ukrainian politicians, from President Zeleni on down, seem ready to give Trump a chance.
"I think he decided on a very smart approach," former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tells me, "clearly outlining the goal - 'I'm going to fix it all' - but not going into details."
Despite Trump's reputation as a tough negotiator, who has an unusual admiration for Vladimir Putin, Dmytro Kuleba believes that many people see him in an overly simplistic way.
"Trump knows how to keep the bigger picture in his head, and I'm sure he won't approach it purely on business."
As the new US administration prepares to take over the presidency and people begin to think about how to achieve Trump's ambitions, the former secretary of state believes that one overriding factor will shape policy.
"President Trump will undoubtedly be motivated by one goal, to project strength, leadership abilities," he says.
"And to show that he is capable of solving the problems that his predecessor failed to solve."
Projecting power, Kuleba believes, will mean exerting equal pressure on both sides.
Giving up on Ukraine, he says, is not an option.
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"Given that the fall of Afghanistan inflicted a severe wound on the reputation of the foreign policy of the Biden administration, if Trump implements the scenario you mentioned, Ukraine would become his Afghanistan, with identical consequences."
"And I don't think that's what he wants."
Zelensky recently said that Kiev would like to end the war by "diplomatic measures" in 2025.
The war will end "faster" with Trump in the White House, He said Ukrainian President.
It was classic Zelenski: part flattery, part chirp.
Among many of those who paid the high price of the Russian invasion, peace cannot come soon enough, even if it means more sacrifices.
In Dnieper, a constant stream of wounded soldiers enters the doors of one of the main prosthetic centers in the country.
Demjan Dudlja (27) lost his leg when his unit came under a rocket attack 18 months ago.
He has already gotten used to the carbon fiber limb and is even training for next year's Invictus Games.
But when it comes to war, he is less optimistic.
"I think two areas, Donetsk and Lugansk, will be taken from us most likely, just like Crimea," he says.
"I am not sure that we will manage to push them out of those authorities. We have neither the people nor the weapons."
Public opinion polls show a mixed picture, but show that more and more Ukrainians want the war to end, and soon.
Especially here in the east, where air raid sirens go off several times a day.
More and more people claim that they are ready to give up part of the territory, just to make peace.
"I think the end of the war will come," says 28-year-old Andrei Petrenko, when I ask him what he expects from Trump's mandate.
Andrej lost his leg three months ago.
"Either they will agree to return to the borders of 1991 or we will lose part of the territory, but the most important thing is that the war stops and people stop dying."
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- Battle for Kursk: Russians have amassed 50.000 soldiers, Zelensky claims
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