Ukraine's front line: Where lives turn on distant decisions

But only sometimes.These Ukrainians are far from the Russian ships headed to a naval exercise off the coast of Ireland, from the American-built fighter jets streaming to the Baltics and from the U.S. aircraft carrier steadily sailing the Mediterranean.As Western-supplied weapons land by the planeload in Kyiv, soldiers and civilians alike wait here with helpless anticipation for decisions made by people who know little about Ukraine and even less about the eastern front lines — a battle-weary region near where Russia has massed tens of thousands of soldiers in a troop buildup that U.S. President Joe Biden said could mount the largest invasion since World War II.The soldiers in Zolote 4 have been defending against Russian encroachment for years. “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said early this month after one such meeting.On Monday, the White House summoned European leaders, including NATO’s secretary-general, to a videoconference about Ukraine to discuss U.S. ideas on how to respond to Russia’s demands. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote.Ukrainian and Russian diplomats are scheduled to meet Wednesday in Paris to discuss the prospects for a stalled 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.