WASHINGTON — When Poland sought a U.S. military base in 2018, it pitched the idea as Fort Trump.
When Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace pledge at the White House last year, they named the transportation corridor created by the deal the Trump Road to International Peace and Prosperity.
But the most unlikely case of President Donald Trump’s name being associated with a geopolitical flashpoint is perhaps one that, until now, has remained outside the public eye. At peace talks over Ukraine in recent months, Ukrainian officials have suggested that the swath of the Donbas region that Russia is still fighting over could be called “Donnyland.”
The nickname, a reference to “Donbas” and “Donald,” was described by four people familiar with the negotiations, all speaking on condition of anonymity due to the secrecy surrounding the talks.
When one of the Ukrainian negotiators first mentioned the term, partly in jest, it was as part of an attempt to convince the Trump administration to react more forcefully to Russia’s territorial demands, according to three people familiar with the discussions. President Vladimir Putin has vowed to keep fighting until Russian forces reach a key administrative border on the edge of Donbas, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine where the Kremlin started the war in 2014.
That a name reminiscent of Disneyland has been applied to an unpopulated and devastated swath of a former Ukrainian coal and steel hub may sound shocking as Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II continues to rage. But this also reflects a global reality in which governments appeal to Trump’s vanity to try to get American power on their side.
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For Ukraine, the effort has not yet yielded results. The term continues to be used in conversations, although it is not known to have been included in official documents. Negotiators have also floated the possibility of Trump’s Peace Council playing a role in managing the area, although neither Russia nor Ukraine have joined that body so far, according to four people familiar with the negotiations.
But Russia did not accept an arrangement that was acceptable to Ukraine. That left the fate of the area the Ukrainians proposed calling Donnyland — about 50 miles long by 40 miles wide — as one of the main sticking points in the negotiations.
Talks on Ukraine have been moving forward quietly in recent weeks, even as top U.S. negotiators — Steve Witkoff, Trump’s close friend and special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law — are focused on the war with Iran. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said this month that he hoped to receive a visit soon from Witkoff and Kushner. But a person familiar with the talks said the Americans are still waiting for enough progress to justify the trip and that they also intend to make another visit to Russia.
“Ukraine is moving forward. I wish they would get along,” Trump told reporters last week. “We’ll see what happens. There’s stuff going on there.”
Trump, of course, promised during the presidential campaign that he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. He and his top negotiators have already spent more than a year trying to hammer out a peace deal, devoting hours to talks with Putin and angering Ukrainian officials with the impression that they were acting more as mediators than as defenders of Ukraine.
“Donnyland” was one of the ways Ukrainians tried to get Trump more on their side. Since Trump met with Putin in Alaska in August, the American government has signaled that it could support a peace deal in which Ukraine would retreat to the administrative border of the Donetsk region, one of the Donbas provinces — a move that critics saw as a major concession to the Kremlin.
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Ukrainian authorities say around 190,000 people currently live in that territory. Others close to the negotiations say the real number could be about half that. The area is so close to the front line that the main access road is covered in netting to protect it from Russian explosive drones.
Little remains of the local economy other than an operating coal mine and businesses that serve soldiers stationed in the area, including stores that sell balloons and flowers for them to buy for visiting wives or girlfriends.
Ukraine insists that it can defend this area and will not abandon it. But in December, Zelensky signaled openness to a compromise that would create a demilitarized zone or free economic zone that would not be under the full control of either warring party.
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The Ukrainians considered, but did not endorse, proposals for a neutral administrator or a governing body with both Russian and Ukrainian representatives, provided that Russia could not claim the land after the end of the war.
The Kremlin stated that Russia could accept the creation of a demilitarized zone if Russian police or members of the National Guard could patrol it — an unacceptable condition for Kiev.
Ukraine wanted the Trump administration to pressure Moscow to further soften its position. Ukrainian negotiators began calling the proposed zone Donnyland, an area that would not be fully controlled by either side and would be “marked” as a Trump achievement.
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Another suggestion called the postwar arrangement the “Monaco model,” in reference to the city-state in the French Mediterranean. Like Donnyland, the term described a possible semi-autonomous mini-state that would benefit from an offshore economic zone status. The phrase “Monaco model” appeared in draft treaties, while Donnyland was mentioned only in conversation, according to a person with direct knowledge of Ukraine’s negotiating strategies.
But the talks stalled at the end of February because of the territorial issue, just when the war with Iran began to occupy the attention of the US negotiating team. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would only accept full legal control of Donbas. And Zelensky downplayed the possibility of exchanging territory for peace, saying doing so would be a “big mistake.”
Since then, Russia and Ukraine have not budged on control of territory, although talks have continued on other issues, including U.S. commitments to ensuring Ukraine’s postwar security, according to people familiar with the discussions.
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One Ukrainian negotiator even created a flag for Donnyland — in green and gold — and a national anthem, using ChatGPT, said the person with knowledge of Ukraine’s negotiating strategies. It is unclear whether the American side ever saw these materials.
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