Ukraine War: What would a task of the Donbas mean?

For Ukraine, evacuation of Donba’s industrial area would have serious military, humanitarian and economic consequences. After the American-Russian summit in Alaska, the Russian demand is that the Ukraine should completely deduct their troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk areas-in return for freezing other fronts. The United States also exerts pressure in this direction on Kyiv.

A disclosure would mean that Russia gets territories without a fight that it has not been conquered not only since 2022, but since 2014. The Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk administration area only hold a few square kilometers. But in the Donetsk area, 7,600 of 26,500 square kilometers are still in the Ukrainian hand, about a third.

There are large cities such as Slowjansk and Kramatorsk, which are well attached to form a defense belt. West of them extends open steppe land, so that Russia could advance freely towards Kharkiw or Dnipropetrovsk in a rebuild of the fighting.

Before the war, Kramatorsk counted 150,000 inhabitants, Slowjansk 106,000 inhabitants. Even if there are fewer, several hundred thousand Ukrainian citizens would be under Russian occupation in the Donetsk area. Ukraine has not been in the Russian war of aggression for almost three and a half years because it does not want to leave compatriots under a Moscow tyranny.

All reports from areas that Ukraine conquered in 2022 show that the Russian occupation has acted against the population with delay, murder and torture. Even the predominantly Russian -speaking Ukrainians in the east, which Moscow supposedly wants to protect. Pressure is exerted to accept Russian citizenship. Ukrainian language and culture are pushed back.

Before 2014, the Donbas industrial region had around 6.5 million inhabitants and was the core of the Ukrainian heavy industry with coal and iron. However, many mines and factories were already outdated at the time. The city of Donetsk was cleaned out for the 2012 European Football Championship and received the chic stadium of Donbas-Arena.

But when Donetsk and other important parts of the Donbas in 2014 came under Russian control, economic contact with the part of Ukraine controlled by Kiev largely dropped out. Because of the fights, many mines have been abandoned since then and ran full of water. This summer there were problems with drinking water in the occupied city of Donetsk because the supply line, the Siorskyj Donets-Donbas Canal, is destroyed in several places.

In the Donbas there are many of the soil treasures with which Ukraine actually wants to buy US aid according to an agreement. Due to the advancement of the Russian army in recent months, other important deposits for Kiev have been lost.