“Moscow’s desire to subjugate the entire Donbas is conditioned by a legal statement, military-strategic benefits, and political goals of pressure on Kyiv.”, — write: www.unian.ua
Moscow’s desire to subjugate the entire Donbas is conditioned by a legal statement, military-strategic benefits, and political goals of pressure on Kyiv.

In an interview with the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, an analyst at the Stockholm Center for East European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Relations in Stockholm and an associate professor at the Department of Political Science at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Andreas Umland, explained why this particular region is of such importance to the Kremlin and why Moscow could not completely subdue it during more than ten years of conflict, reports Kyiv Post.
According to Moscow’s official rhetoric, the Russian constitution, amended in 2022, formally (albeit illegally) included the Donetsk region in the Russian Federation — and Putin, as the “guarantor” of the Constitution, is forced to enforce this formal prescription.
But symbolic and practical considerations are more important: control over the Donetsk basin provides a strategic advantage for further attacks deep into Ukraine and opens access to the region’s natural resources.
Donbas, and in particular those parts of it that remain under the control of Kyiv, have turned into a well-fortified “belt of fortresses”. Over the past 11 years, Ukrainian troops have created a system of trenches, bunkers, fortifications and logistics lines here, making the region extremely difficult to storm. It is because of these fortifications and high human losses that Russia has not yet been able to completely capture Donetsk region, although it controls most of Luhansk region.
Politically, the Kremlin is trying to solve this problem not only with military methods, but also with diplomacy: to get territorial concessions from Kyiv, forcing Western mediators to put pressure on Ukraine. If the West, and in particular the US, push President Zelenskyi to make concessions, Putin will win an important victory without large-scale new operations. If Ukraine refuses, Moscow will be able to present Kyiv as an “obstacle to peace” in the negotiating eyes of Western leaders.
“Voluntary relinquishment of the hard-won and well-protected by the government parts of the Donetsk basin as part of Ukraine will cause great indignation, especially among the Ukrainian armed forces and veteran associations,” Umland notes.
According to him, this can create an internal political crisis or even provoke a civil conflict – this is exactly what Moscow hoped to achieve since the beginning of the aggression in 2014.
“It can be assumed that Donbas now has a reputation in both the Ukrainian and Russian armies as a death zone for Russian soldiers. Therefore, Putin is trying to solve this operational, strategic and political problem for Moscow not by military means, but by negotiations,” he concluded.
Putin wants all of Donbas – the latest newsAs UNIAN reported, in a conversation with Trump, Putin proposed a territorial exchange, in the framework of which Ukraine would cede Donetsk and Luhansk regions in exchange for small parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. and during a meeting at the White House, Donald Trump called on Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyi to accept Russia’s conditions for ending the war.
There will be no retreat from Donbas, and Ukraine’s position on this matter remains unchanged, Zelenskyi said today.
Instead, in a conversation with journalists, Trump emphasized that he had never discussed with Volodymyr Zelensky about handing over Donbas to Russia. At the same time, he said that Donbas should remain divided “as it is now”.
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