2 days ago
'It will be a betrayal': Ukrainians from the Donbas on losing their home in a peace deal
By ITV News Producer Michael Maitland-Jones
"If we give up our territory, I think that it will be a disaster not only for Ukraine, but the whole world."
Olexandra Suslova, a teacher from Donetsk has spoken to ITV News about the land concessions Ukraine may have to make for a potential peace agreement with Russia.
Vladimir Putin is seeking full control over Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are known together as the Donbas.
Russia already controls almost all of the Luhansk region, but Ukraine is estimated to still hold onto around 30% of Donetsk.
The area is of strategic importance to Ukraine, with strongly fortified cities like Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka acting as a barrier to Russian forces.
Holding on to the area has cost thousands of Ukrainian lives, and giving it up could hand Russia the means to threaten other parts of Ukraine in the future.
The view from the Donbas
Olexandra left her home in Donetsk in 2019 and now lives in Kyiv - she is among the 1.5 million to have fled the Donbas since Russian aggression began in 2014.
The idea of her home being handed to Russia is painful.
"I think that we, as Ukrainians, are against it because we still remember how it was in 2014, and we see what it led to," she said.
"I personally think that any decision cannot be made without our President and without our opinions. "
She is also skeptical about whether the concession would lead to a lasting peace.
"I think that for him (Putin), it's just a pause, just a break, to reinforce again, to build up troops and everything and to attack again. So I think that this is the most dangerous thing about it. You cannot give it a chance."
In her mind, the only way for Russia to be able to live alongside Ukrainians would be with "really serious guarantees from our partners and from all of the countries who are involved in this war and who want to stop it. Only on these conditions ".
"I think that there are a lot of people in occupied regions who are still waiting for Ukraine and they're waiting for their decisions to still be a part of Ukraine... I think that it will be such a betrayal just to neglect their feelings and their desires and their rights to be Ukrainians. "
Maria Kolomiyets left Donetsk in 2014 when she was 10. Her memories of it are fond- including of her grandparents.
Now, with much of the region under Russian occupation, she cannot visit their graves.
"For me it is so hard to see Donetsk in Russian (control)... I remember normal Donetsk with smiling people... with big festivals.. with roses.. now I don't see roses, now I don't see anything like that".
As for the possibility of handing the remains of Donetsk to Russia, she says that it would be a tough future for those who may be displaced.
"When someone thinks that your home is not your home, you must go to another city. You don't have money. It's not cheap. I remember it's so difficult. You have some plan. But now your plan must be crushed. "
