Overview

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has made control of all Donetsk and Luhansk a non-negotiable term for any peace agreement with Ukraine.
• Russian forces occupy nearly all of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk, while Kyiv holds a fortified belt of cities including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostyantynivka.
• About three-quarters of Ukrainians oppose ceding any territory to Russia, according to polling by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
• Western leaders and Ukrainian officials dismiss Moscow’s security guarantees as unreliable, pointing to Russia’s history of violating treaties and ceasefire accords.
• Donbas’s industrial assets—coal mines, steel plants and key transport links—mean surrendering the region would undermine Ukraine’s defenses and reward aggression.