Overview

• Deutsche Welle reports the Alaska meeting included a proposal for Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk in exchange for freezing the rest of the front, particularly in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, though officials have not confirmed any agreement.
• Russia already controls all of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk, putting roughly 88% of the Donbas under occupation, according to territorial assessments.
• Ukraine still holds a fortified belt around cities such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk that analysts describe as the country’s key line of defense against deeper Russian advances.
• President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly ruled out giving up the region, and polling cited by researchers shows about 75% of Ukrainians oppose territorial concessions.
• Military and policy experts warn that conceding Donbas would dismantle Ukraine’s primary defenses and, given the region’s war damage and economic decline, saddle any occupier with vast reconstruction and governance burdens.