In his meeting in Alaska on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Donald Trump agreed that Ukraine should do Donnetsk and Luhansk. Putin wants Ukraine’s armed forces to return completely from the region. In turn, he will freeze the fight with the rest of the front line – especially in southern Ukrainian regions in Kheson and Zaporizhjia, which are currently occupied by large -scale Russian forces.
In recent years, Putin has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Donnetsk and Luhansk, which make Donbas together. He says that the region is historically connected to Russia and is part of the heritage of the Soviet Union. In terms of constitutional law, however, the region belongs to Ukraine – a fact that is already undisputed in the Soviet era.
Although the Crimean Peninsula was transferred from Russia to Ukraine only in 1954 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – a source of controversy in Russia was part of the Donnetsk and Luhansk regional HVE Ukraine, because it was for a long time since the establishment of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1919, and for a long time.
Donbas had a strong Russian character for a long time. In the early 19th century, and later in the Soviet period, it was rich in industrial heartburn, natural resources. Coal-mining, steel and chemical regions were developed in the 20th century, all the people of the Soviet Union, at the top of Russia, moved here in search of work.
Even before 2014, most of the population said Russian; While many people in more western parts of Ukraine wanted to close with the European Union compared to the Kremlin, this part of Eastern Ukraine maintained close ties with Moscow. Former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich, who was supported by the Kremlin, was born in Donnetsk, and what is in the region that most of his base remains.
This was when he was uprooted during the 2014 ground revolution and fled to Russia that there was a bone of dispute between Donbas and Kiev.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, and unrest spread to the eastern Ukraine. Armed groups supported by Russian weapons and paramilitary announced the establishment of a self-declared “People’s Republic” in Donnetsk and Luhanskas.
‘Special military campaign’
If Kremlin was expecting widespread support from Russian -speaking Ukrainian, it was soon to be proved wrong. In fact, the separatist had displeasure the Kremlin in Eastern. Russian -speaking Volodimier Zelancesi won the landslide in the 2019 presidential election, winning the field of Eastern Ukraine organized by Keev. Their approach to end the struggle without giving the Ukrainian sovereign gray got his approach with widespread approval.
Donbas was a lactate for Putin when a full -scale invasion was started in Ukraine, Russia in February 2022. In a television speech, he justified his “special military operation”, saying that the republics of self-declared people had asked Russia to help. He also claimed that the Russian -speaking residents in the field of Eastern Ukraine were controlled by Kive, “the massacre” faced.
Today, all of the Luhansk region and about 70% of the Donnetsk Kremlin are under control. Thus, about 88% of Donbas is occupied by Russia. More 4 million people estimated to live in two areas, which not only boasts the rich deposits of coal and iron ore, but therefore there are lithium, cobalt, titanium and other rare earths that are important for high -tech goods.
Donbas is important
Both areas are so important to maintain land relations for the Creamin Peninsula for Kremlin, which can only be reached from the Russian region through the Kerke Bridge.
Should the Kremlin be controlled by the front line in Donbas and Zaporizhia and Karsan region, it would effectively that Russia occupies these areas, will be accessible through Crimea land. And Ukraine will not have any access to the Azov Sea, an inlet connected to the Black Sea which is currently limited by Ukraine and Russia.
For Ukraine, also, Donbas is beyond economics. The government has installed a “fort belt” in the region that still holds. This is the most importing line of the army’s defense, and it has made it impossible for Russia to move forward in the middle Ukraine. The fort belt consists of several major cities and stronghold positions, including Crametsk, Slovensk, and Costentinevka, which Ukraine has placed on a deadly despite heavy losses. Behind this belt is open fields of middle Ukraine, which would be extremely unsafe for a Russian aggressive without a row of defense.
Thus, Zelenskyy will try its best not to leave the remaining area of Donbas far and wide and without reliable security guarantee.
It will be difficult for him to do this from a domestic point of view in any case. The Constitution does not allow the President to create a concession, which will be extremely unpopular in Ukraine. For a survey by Kiev International Institute of Sociology, about 75% of Ukrainians are against regional concessions for Russia.
This article was original in German.
