The significance of the Donbas in Russia's war in Ukraine – DW – 08/20/2025
In their meeting in Alaska on Monday,Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, are reported to have agreed that Ukraine should cede Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin wants Ukraine's armed forces to withdraw completely from the areas. In exchange, he would freeze the fighting along the rest of the front line — particularly in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which are currently largely occupied by Russian forces.
In recent years, Putin has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Donetsk and Luhansk, which together make up the Donbas. He says the region is historically linked to Russia and part of the legacy of the Soviet Union. In terms of constitutional law, however, the region belongs to Ukraine — a fact that was already undisputed in the Soviet era.
Though the Crimean Peninsula was only transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev — a source of dispute in Russia to this day — the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been part of Ukraine since the founding of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1919. And, for a long time, this was undisputed.
The Donbas has long had a strong Russian character. As early as the 19th century, and in Soviet times later, it was an industrial heartland, rich in natural resources. As the coal-mining, steel and chemical sectors were developed in the 20th century, people from all over the Soviet Union, above all from Russia, moved here in search of work.
Even before 2014, a clear majority of the population spoke Russian; while many people in the more western parts of Ukraine wanted closer ties to the European Union than to the Kremlin, this part of eastern Ukraine maintained close ties with Moscow. The former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was supported by the Kremlin, was born in Donetsk, and it was in this region that most of his base lived.
It was when he was overthrown during the Maidan revolution of 2014 and fled to Russia that the Donbas became a bone of contention between Moscow and Kyiv.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and unrest spread in eastern Ukraine. Armed groups, supported by Russian weapons and paramilitaries, announced the establishment of self-proclaimed "people's republics" in Donetsk and Luhansk.
If the Kremlin was hoping for wide support from Russian-speaking Ukrainians, it was soon to be proved wrong. In fact, the separatist war in eastern Ukraine fueled resentment of the Kremlin. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who grew up speaking Russian, won a landslide victory in the 2019 presidential election, winning in the areas of eastern Ukraine still held by Kyiv. His approach to end the conflict without giving up Ukrainian sovereignty met with broad approval.
The Donbas was a leitmotif for Putin when he launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In a televised speech, he justified his "special military operation" by saying that the self-proclaimed people's republics had asked Russia for help. He even claimed that the Russian-speaking residents in the areas of eastern Ukraine that were controlled by Kyiv faced "genocide."
Today, all of the Luhansk region and about 70% of Donetsk are under the Kremlin's control. Thus, about 88% of the Donbas is occupied by Russia. More than 4 million people are estimated to live in the two regions, which boast not only rich deposits of coal and iron ore, but also lithium, cobalt, titanium and other rare earths that are key for high-tech goods.
The two regions are also vital for the Kremlin to maintain a land connection to the Crimean Peninsula, which can only be reached from Russian territory via the Kerch bridge.
Should the Kremlin be granted control of the Donbas and the front line in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions be frozen, it effectively would mean that Russia's occupation of these areas would continue, Crimea would be accessible via land. And Ukraine would have no access to the Sea of Azov, an inlet connected to the Black Sea that is currently bordered by Ukraine and Russia.
For Ukraine, too, the significance of the Donbas goes beyond economics. The government has established a "fortress belt" in the areas that it still holds. It is the military's most important line of defense, and it has made it so far impossible for Russia to advance further into central Ukraine. The fortress belt comprises several key cities and fortified positions, including Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Kostyantynivka, which Ukraine has held onto doggedly despite heavy losses. Behind this belt lie the open plains of central Ukraine, which would be extremely vulnerable to a Russian offensive without a line of defense.
Thus, Zelenskyy will do his best to not give up the remaining areas of Donbas without far-reaching and reliable security guarantees.
This would in any case be hard for him to do from a domestic point of view. The constitution does not allow the president to make such a concession, which would be extremely unpopular in Ukraine. According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, about 75% of Ukrainians are against territorial concessions to Russia.To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
5 hours ago
- DW
The significance of the Donbas in Russia's war in Ukraine – DW – 08/20/2025
At a recent meeting with his US counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again suggested that full control of Donbas was a central criterion for ending the war in Ukraine. Why is the region so important to him? In their meeting in Alaska on Monday,Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, are reported to have agreed that Ukraine should cede Donetsk and Luhansk. Putin wants Ukraine's armed forces to withdraw completely from the areas. In exchange, he would freeze the fighting along the rest of the front line — particularly in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which are currently largely occupied by Russian forces. In recent years, Putin has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Donetsk and Luhansk, which together make up the Donbas. He says the region is historically linked to Russia and part of the legacy of the Soviet Union. In terms of constitutional law, however, the region belongs to Ukraine — a fact that was already undisputed in the Soviet era. Though the Crimean Peninsula was only transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev — a source of dispute in Russia to this day — the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been part of Ukraine since the founding of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1919. And, for a long time, this was undisputed. The Donbas has long had a strong Russian character. As early as the 19th century, and in Soviet times later, it was an industrial heartland, rich in natural resources. As the coal-mining, steel and chemical sectors were developed in the 20th century, people from all over the Soviet Union, above all from Russia, moved here in search of work. Even before 2014, a clear majority of the population spoke Russian; while many people in the more western parts of Ukraine wanted closer ties to the European Union than to the Kremlin, this part of eastern Ukraine maintained close ties with Moscow. The former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was supported by the Kremlin, was born in Donetsk, and it was in this region that most of his base lived. It was when he was overthrown during the Maidan revolution of 2014 and fled to Russia that the Donbas became a bone of contention between Moscow and Kyiv. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and unrest spread in eastern Ukraine. Armed groups, supported by Russian weapons and paramilitaries, announced the establishment of self-proclaimed "people's republics" in Donetsk and Luhansk. If the Kremlin was hoping for wide support from Russian-speaking Ukrainians, it was soon to be proved wrong. In fact, the separatist war in eastern Ukraine fueled resentment of the Kremlin. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who grew up speaking Russian, won a landslide victory in the 2019 presidential election, winning in the areas of eastern Ukraine still held by Kyiv. His approach to end the conflict without giving up Ukrainian sovereignty met with broad approval. The Donbas was a leitmotif for Putin when he launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In a televised speech, he justified his "special military operation" by saying that the self-proclaimed people's republics had asked Russia for help. He even claimed that the Russian-speaking residents in the areas of eastern Ukraine that were controlled by Kyiv faced "genocide." Today, all of the Luhansk region and about 70% of Donetsk are under the Kremlin's control. Thus, about 88% of the Donbas is occupied by Russia. More than 4 million people are estimated to live in the two regions, which boast not only rich deposits of coal and iron ore, but also lithium, cobalt, titanium and other rare earths that are key for high-tech goods. The two regions are also vital for the Kremlin to maintain a land connection to the Crimean Peninsula, which can only be reached from Russian territory via the Kerch bridge. Should the Kremlin be granted control of the Donbas and the front line in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions be frozen, it effectively would mean that Russia's occupation of these areas would continue, Crimea would be accessible via land. And Ukraine would have no access to the Sea of Azov, an inlet connected to the Black Sea that is currently bordered by Ukraine and Russia. For Ukraine, too, the significance of the Donbas goes beyond economics. The government has established a "fortress belt" in the areas that it still holds. It is the military's most important line of defense, and it has made it so far impossible for Russia to advance further into central Ukraine. The fortress belt comprises several key cities and fortified positions, including Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Kostyantynivka, which Ukraine has held onto doggedly despite heavy losses. Behind this belt lie the open plains of central Ukraine, which would be extremely vulnerable to a Russian offensive without a line of defense. Thus, Zelenskyy will do his best to not give up the remaining areas of Donbas without far-reaching and reliable security guarantees. This would in any case be hard for him to do from a domestic point of view. The constitution does not allow the president to make such a concession, which would be extremely unpopular in Ukraine. According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, about 75% of Ukrainians are against territorial concessions to view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Int'l Business Times
6 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Polar Bear Waltz: Fake Trump-Putin AI Images Shroud Ukraine Peace Effort
From a fake image of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin dancing in the snow with a polar bear to a fabricated photo of European leaders waiting somberly outside the Oval Office, AI-enabled disinformation has clouded the diplomatic push to end the war in Ukraine. The online fakery -- dubbed widely as AI slop -- underscores how easily artificial intelligence tools can flood the internet with false and satirical content around major global events. These creations also highlight the challenge of policing bogus content as tech platforms offer creators monetization incentives for viral posts. In hundreds of online posts mocking European leaders as powerless mediators snubbed by Trump, one such image purported to show French President Emmanuel Macron and other top officials waiting somberly in a White House corridor with their heads bowed. "This is utter humiliation of these corrupt scumbags. Absolutely beautiful," said one post on X from a conservative political commentator that AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation about Ukraine. Such posts -- in multiple languages including Greek, German and French -- gained traction as European leaders joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House Monday for talks with Trump following the US president's summit with Putin in Alaska. AFP fact-checkers identified visual inconsistencies that indicate the image including Macron was AI-generated. Some of the individuals depicted in the image also do not match those seen in official photographs from the high-stakes meeting. Macron and other European leaders represented a group of Ukraine's allies known as the "Coalition of the Willing" for White House consultations. But multiple pro-Kremlin sources sharing the AI-generated image ridiculed them as the "coalition of those in waiting." The image was also amplified by sites operated by the Pravda network, a well-resourced Moscow-based operation known to circulate pro-Russian narratives globally, the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said in a report. The falsehood was an illustration of how "pro-Kremlin sources often seize on high-profile meetings involving European leaders to spread false claims," NewsGuard said. In other viral posts, an AI-generated clip purported to show Trump and Putin skidding down snow-covered slopes, eating ice-cream beside a snowman, and waltzing with a polar bear to country music. And in another AI video, Trump and Putin were depicted brawling on a red carpet leading from an airplane staircase, trading punches and kicks as secret service agents idle in the background. The tongue-in-cheek posts offer a window into a social media landscape increasingly filled with AI-generated memes, videos and images competing for attention with -- and sometimes drowning out -- authentic content. As tech platforms scale back content moderation, AI videos spread rapidly, muddying the waters around serious diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war in Ukraine. Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending American troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit. AI tools are flooding the internet with fake and satirical content. AFP
Int'l Business Times
15 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Russians Welcome Idea Of Putin And Zelensky Meeting
Russians welcomed Tuesday the idea of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, though not everyone was convinced it would bring peace after nearly three-and-a-half years of conflict. After meeting Putin in Alaska on Friday and Zelensky in Washington on Monday, US President Donald Trump announced he would arrange face-to-face talks between the two leaders, their first in almost six years. Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Russia after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and the two leaders have had no direct contact since. "It would be good if such an event took place. I am sure that the conflict would end and everything would be fine," 39-year-old musician Roman told AFP in Moscow. "Many young people have died. It would be good if such a meeting had taken place earlier," he said. Vyacheslav, a 23-year-old civil servant, agreed that a meeting between the two leaders was long overdue. "It would have been better if the meeting had taken place earlier. But then there were a lot of interested parties and it turned out the way it did," he told AFP in Moscow. Russia hoped to take Kyiv in days after launching its offensive in 2022, but pulled back from the Ukrainian capital after encountering stiff resistance. Its forces have since seized large swathes of the east and south of the country, while tens of thousands of soldiers have died on both sides. "I want everything to end peacefully," said Roman. "We are one people, we are Slavs, and we must love and respect each other." Ilya Denisov, a 19-year-old student from Saint Petersburg, said he was sceptical the talks would succeed. "Nothing will change," he told AFP. "Ukraine should be divided. Leave Russia what it controls and go their separate ways." Russia currently occupies a fifth of Ukraine. It annexed Crimea in 2014 following a referendum denounced as a sham by Kyiv and the West, and did the same in 2022 in four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia -- though its forces have not fully captured them. Russia has signalled it might freeze the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in exchange for Ukraine withdrawing from land it already controls in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but Kyiv has shot down the proposal. Vyacheslav was hopeful the two sides could agree a deal. "I hope we can agree on mutually beneficial terms," he said. Tatiana, a 29-year-old resident of Moscow, told AFP she supported the idea of a meeting between Zelensky and Putin. "If, of course, they come to a good result," she added. Sales manager Ksenia was not convinced the two leaders should meet at all. The Russian leader has repeatedly questioned Zelensky's legitimacy, saying his mandate expired under martial law. "I am against the meeting," she told AFP. "What is ours now must remain ours. People shed blood for this land, so it is ours."
