A decade ago, Donetsk was the metropolis of Ukraine’s east<\/p>\n
By 2013, one in 10 Ukrainians called it home, part of a pre-war population of 4.43 million.<\/p>\n
It was an agricultural and industrial heartland, rich in produce and with much of the country’s coal, steel and iron.<\/p>\n
It hosted prestigious music festivals, hockey championships and other international sports tournaments, as well as concerts by Beyonc\u00e9 and Rihanna.<\/p>\n
One of Ukraine’s most popular football clubs, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, drew crowds of thousands.<\/p>\n
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Donetsk has seen intense fighting since the war broke out in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 (Reuters: Marko Djurica)<\/p>\n
But Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk \u2014 collectively known as Donbas \u2014 have long been sought after by Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
It is where the majority of the heavy fighting has taken place since February 2022, reducing homes, businesses, and venues to rubble, and forcing millions to flee.<\/p>\n
Now the Russian president is reportedly demanding Kyiv hand over the remaining quarter <\/a>of the more than 26,000 square kilometre region in order to secure peace in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Putin’s enduring fight for Donbas<\/p>\n Russia has been trying to seize the entire Donbas region for about a decade.<\/p>\n Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in early 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n That same year, Russian-backed separatists broke away from the Ukrainian government, declaring both Donetsk and Luhansk as independent “people’s republics”.<\/p>\n Days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, <\/a>Mr Putin made a national address to recognise their independence<\/a> from Ukraine.<\/p>\n The US, UK and European Union called the move a “breach of international law”.<\/p>\n A map of Ukraine before the Russian invasion, but after annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. (ABC News Graphics)<\/p>\n Russia expert Matthew Sussex, from the Australian National University’s Centre for European Studies, said Mr Putin had his sights set on conquering Donbas “since the start of the conflict”.<\/p>\n “But the slow progress of his military means that he can’t occupy, or doesn’t occupy, those territories,” he told the ABC.<\/p>\n “So what he’s demanding now is that the Ukrainians cede Donetsk Oblast \u2014 which is a huge amount of territory \u2014 and [that] would force them to give up some vital fortified cities and defence lines which the Russians have been trying for three and a half years to crack, and they can’t.”<\/p>\n Ukraine has been developing a “fortress belt” throughout Donetsk since the initial 2014 conflict \u2014 a 50-kilometre stretch spanning several cities.<\/p>\n This main defence line has halted Russian forces from advancing further west into Ukraine.<\/p>\n A map of Ukraine a month after the invasion as Russian control spread to about 120,000 square kilometres. (ABC News Graphics)<\/p>\n In March 2022, the initial conflict saw rapid Russian advances.<\/p>\n Within five weeks of the invasion, the Kremlin’s forces had taken control of about 120,000 square kilometres of Ukraine and were advancing on Kyiv.<\/p>\n But by September, Russia’s hold on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv in the north-east, was waning, and Moscow called back its troops in retreat.<\/p>\n By the end of spring, Ukraine had recaptured about 50,000 square kilometres of territory back from Russia.<\/p>\n Russia now controls about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s east.<\/p>\n Along with Crimea, Russian forces control approximately 88 per cent of the Donbas region, including all of Luhansk and 75 per cent of Donetsk.<\/p>\n Russia also controls large parts of two other regions of south-eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.<\/p>\n More than three years of war with Russia has changed the map of Ukraine. (ABC News Graphics)<\/p>\n The ‘swap’ proposed by Trump and Putin<\/p>\n After a meeting with Mr Putin in Alaska last week, US President Donald Trump said Ukraine might need to “swap” territory with Russia in order to end the war.<\/p>\n In exchange for the entire Donbas region and Crimea, Russia would be prepared to fix the front lines as they stand in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.<\/a><\/p>\n The most recent map of Ukraine including where the front line of the war is located. (ABC News Graphics\u00a0)<\/p>\n Mr Putin “illegally annexed” Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022<\/a>, saying the four regions would be folded into Russia.<\/p>\n In a 37-minute speech announcing the annexation, Mr Putin made it clear he had no intention of handing over any of the regions.<\/p>\n “I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me so that they remember this,” he said.<\/p>\n “People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. Forever.”<\/p>\n Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long refused to hand over annexed territories to Russia.\u00a0 (Reuters: Valentyn Ogirenko)<\/p>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also repeatedly rejected calls to cede territory.<\/p>\n “We will not leave Donbas,” Mr Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n “We cannot do this.<\/p>\n “Donbas for the Russians is a springboard for a new future offensive.”<\/p>\n Handing it over would mean shifting the front line of war deep into Ukraine, as well as giving up the decades’ worth of defence build-up which has made it so difficult to capture.<\/p>\n Any concession of Ukrainian territory would also have to be approved by a referendum.<\/p>\n About 78 per cent of Ukrainians are opposed to giving up territory to Russia, according to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute (KIIS) of Sociology in June.<\/a><\/p>\n For those in Donetsk and Luhansk, where the population is majority Russian-speaking and the government is anti-Ukraine, there is similar opposition to the invasion.<\/p>\n A KIIS poll of those living in Russian-occupied territory found 82 per cent of citizens felt negatively towards Russia.<\/p>\n Territory gains Putin’s ‘ultimate goal’<\/p>\n After talks with the Russian president, Mr Trump hosted Mr Zelenskyy and a group of European leaders in Washington<\/a> for multilateral talks.<\/p>\n Mr Zelenskyy said he had a long conversation with Mr Trump about land, but territorial issues would be decided between Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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