What will the ladders of Donbas mean to Putin for Ukraine

Days before Vladimir Putin interviewed in Alaska, Donald Trump referred to what he called “land bodies” as a condition for peace.

For the Ukrainians, it was a confusing turn of the phrase. What is the land to be replaced? Will Ukraine offer part of Russia, in exchange for the land that Russia has taken by force?

While Volodymyr Zelensky is preparing to travel to Washington on Monday to meet Trump, there will be no “swap” element for the American president’s thinking.

Instead, it is said that he is planning to pressure Zelinski to hand over the overall Eastern Ukrainian regions in Donetsk and Luhansk in exchange for the freezing of the rest of the confrontation line – a proposal made by Putin in Alaska.

Luhansk is almost almost under Russian control. But Ukraine indicates that it holds about 30 % of Donetsk, including many major cities and fortifications, at the cost of tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives.

Both regions – known together as Donbas – are rich in minerals and industry. Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hretsak said that their delivery to Russia would now be a “tragedy”.

“These are Ukrainian lands,” said Mr. Hrytsak. “People played in these areas – especially miners – a major role in promoting Ukrainian identity.”

He said that the region also produced “famous politicians, poets and dissidents.” “And now the refugees who will not be able to return to their homes if it becomes Russian.”

At least 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled Dunpas since the Russian aggression began in 2014. It is estimated that more than three million lived under Russian occupation. It is estimated that another 300,000 in the parts that Ukraine still controls.

In areas closest to the confrontation line, life has already become a dangerous struggle. Andrei Borilo, the 55 -year -old military priest in Sloveinsk, which was severely struck, said in an interview on the phone that the shells had landed next to his home during the weekend.

“It is a very difficult situation here,” he said. “There is a feeling of resignation and abandonment. I don’t know how much we have the power we bear. Someone must protect us. But who?”

Mr. Borio said he was following the news from Alaska. “I put this on Trump, not Zelinski. But they take everything from me, and it is betrayal.”

Zelinski constantly said that Ukraine would not hand over Donbas in exchange for peace. Russia’s trust to adhere to any such arrangement – rather than just using the attached land for future attacks – is low.

Therefore, other reasons, about 75 % of the Ukrainians object to any official territorial endowment of Russia, according to the polling poll conducted by the Kiev International Sociology Institute.

But Ukraine was very amazed at the war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and wounded since the large -scale invasion. People are eager to suffer, especially in Donbas.

“You ask about the surrender of the Donetsk region, well, I measure this war not in kilometers but in human life,” said Yuven Takshev, 56 years old, a rescue worker in the city of Kamurorsk.

“I am not ready to give tens of thousands of lives to several thousand square kilometers,” he said. “Life is more important than the region.”

For some, this is what is related to it in the end. Earth for life. Voluder Ariev, the Ukrainian deputy from the opposition European Solidarity Party, said he left President Zelinski “at a crossroads without any good road in front of him.”

“We do not have enough power to continue the war for an unlimited period,” Ariev said. “But if Zelinski waives this land, then this will not be merely a collapse of our constitution, it may have a distinctive betrayal.”

However, it is not clear in Ukraine any mechanism that such an agreement can reach. Any official delivery of the nation’s lands requires the approval of Parliament and a referendum from people.

Most likely it will be a actual surrender of control, with no official recognition of the region as the Russian. But even in this event, the process is not well understood, according to Ukrainian MP where Sofson said.

“There is no real understanding of what the procedure should be,” she said. “Does the president simply sign the agreement? Do the government should be? Parliament? There is no legal action prepared because, as you know, that the book of the constitution did not think about this.”

Things may become clearer after Zelinski spoke with Trump in Washington on Monday – the first visit to the Ukrainian leader of the White House since a catastrophic clash in the Oval Office in February. Amid the misery left by the Alaska summit, there was a possible glimmer of good news for Ukraine.

Trump seemed to reflect his position on security guarantees after the summit, indicating that he is ready to join Europe in providing Ukrainian military protection from future Russian attacks.

For the Ukrainians, the poll shows that security guarantees are a completely vital part of any possible land agreement or anything else.

“People in Ukraine will accept various forms of security guarantees,” said Anton Grushchi, director of the International Sociology Institute in Kiev, but they ask for it.

For Yevhen Tkachov, the emergency factor in Kramatorsk, land exchange can only be considered with “real guarantees, not only written promises.”

“Just then, more or less, I support Giving Donbas to Russia,” he said. “If the British Royal Navy is stationed in the port of Odessa, then I agree.”

Since many paths of peace are presented and discussed, and sometimes in the way of making deals that President Trump prefers, there is a risk of sight to real people concerned-people who have already lived during a decade of war and who may lose more now for peace.

The Ukrainian historian, Vitaly Dearcia, said that Donbas was a place full of Ukrainians from all aspects of different life. “We are not only talking about culture, about politics, about the population composition, we are talking about people,” he said.

Denita said that Donetsk may not have a cultural reputation somewhere like Odessa. But it was Ukraine. “And any corner of Ukraine, regardless of whether or not it has some cultural importance, is Ukraine,” he said.