After meeting with Alaska, the Russian army ordered the battles in an attempt to conquer as much ground in Donetsk’s province, which, along with that of Luhansk, is the region of eastern Ukraine called. The Russian president sets the term for peace to keep the whole of Donbas, even the part that the Russian army has not conquered.
And he managed to convince his American counterpart of it. However, although the Russian army has occupied almost the whole of Luhansk, the Ukrainians still hold about a fifth of Donetsk – an area of more than 6,500 square meters. km in western Donetsk, that is almost twice as much as the prefecture of Attica – where at least 200,000 Ukrainians live.
Critical role for Ukrainian defense
This part of the Western Donetsk that remains in Ukraine is the most fortified area of the front and includes two major cities, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which play a crucial role in Ukrainian defense since 2014. The Russian army conquered and, in return, Russia to stop the war on the rest of the fronts. The US president seems willing to convince the Volodimir Zelenski To succumb to the Russian demand, though the Ukrainian president categorically rejected the idea.
According to Washington’s view, Moscow made a concession because before the Alaska meeting, it demanded that four whole provinces be given to her – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizia and Hersona – and even their sections that have not been managed. According to analysts, Moscow’s requirement is a trick that will lead to either the inner weakening of Ukraine and Zelenski himself if accepted, or to Trump’s rage and possibly his departure from the Ukrainian resolution if Zelenski refuses.
78% of Ukrainians say no to concession
According to the Ukraine Constitution, the only way to grant the country’s territory is through a nationwide referendum. However, a recent poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology showed that 78% of Ukrainians reported to give Russia controlled by Ukraine. In addition, the western part of Donetsk has a great strategic value for Ukraine: if it grants this heavy fortified region, which Russia has been trying to conquer for more than a decade, the rest of Ukraine will be much more vulnerable if the Russians decide to do so again.
The conquest of Donbas is a top goal of Putin by war. The Russian president has been trying to control it since 2014.
In the three years after the invasion, the most fierce and bloody battles of the war were held in Donbas. If there is no truce, the battles in Donbas are expected to continue for many months and cost thousands of lives.
Although Putin has not clarified it, he has understood to get all Donbas – which he considers more Russian than other parts of Ukraine.
Already since the state of Ukraine was created in the early 20th century, Donbas was confronted with the Russians and the Ukrainians. Most of its inhabitants were Ukrainians until in Stalin’s time, many Russians migrated to work in the mines and factories in the area, killing massive Ukrainians and banning the Ukrainian language. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, two -thirds of Donbas’ inhabitants were Russian -speaking and considered themselves near Russian culture.
Russian finger from 2010 elections
It is indicative that in the 2010 presidential elections in Ukraine, 90% of Donbas voters voted for the Russian candidate Victor Yanukovych. His overthrow in 2014 by the pro -European Maidan revolutionaries led to the occupation and annexation of Crimea by Russia and then to the uprising of Donbas’ pro -Russians, following motion and support from Moscow, who even sent Russian soldiers.
The conflict in Donbas between the pro -Russian rebels and the Ukrainian army caused an anti -Russian wave in the area, which was also a Russian -speaking elections, in the 2019 elections.
Meanwhile, Kremlin’s propaganda was trying to seduce the Russians in favor of Donbas’ issue, though without much success, as he showed a poll shortly before the invasion of 2022, according to which only one quarter of the Russians – mainly the supremacists – supported him. On February 21, 2022, three days before invading Ukraine, Putin recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhank.
Road artery and top line of defense
The Ukrainians have shed a lot of blood to defend Donbas since February 2022, but the Russians, after severe battles and major casualties, have managed to control three major cities in the region, Marioupoli, Bahmut and Avdivka. The cities of Donetsk, which remain under Ukrainian control, are linked by a road artery heading from north to south to a top line of defense to prevent Russian troops from crossing the rest of Ukraine.
Recent polls show that more Ukrainians – more than two -thirds – support negotiations for the end of the war. At the same time, however, most Ukrainians oppose the concession of territories to Moscow. The question of Donbas’ future is which of these conflicting views will prevail.
