Donetsk deadlock blocks hopes of Russia-Ukraine peace deal

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on August 18, 2025, shows a damaged residential building following an air attack, in Kharkiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Three people were killed and more than a dozen wounded by an overnight Russian drone strike on Ukraine's Kharkiv, the mayor Igor Terekhov said on August 18, 2025. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)

Hopes of ending the war in Ukraine remain remote as Russia and Ukraine remain sharply divided over the future of Donetsk, a strategically vital region in the country’s east.

A senior aide to Vladimir Putin said on Friday that talks with United States envoys had made clear that no peace deal was possible unless disputes over territory were resolved. The comments followed discussions involving the Russian president and American officials, according to Reuters.

Read also: Ukraine backs ‘essence’ of peace deal with Russia but sensitive issues linger – Reuters

At the centre of the impasse is Donetsk, one of two regions that make up the Donbas. Russian forces already control almost all of neighbouring Luhansk, but have failed to seize full control of Donetsk despite months of heavy fighting.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said the territorial issue would be discussed at United States-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday. He has firmly rejected Russian demands that Ukraine withdraw from around 20 percent of Donetsk still under Kyiv’s control, roughly 5,000 square kilometres. “There is no reason to gift Putin our land,” Zelenskiy has said.

Russia claims Donetsk is part of its historical lands and says it formally annexed the region in 2022 following referendums dismissed by Kyiv and Western governments as illegitimate. Most of the international community continues to recognise Donetsk as Ukrainian territory.

Read also: Trump says Ukraine stalling peace talks, not Russia

The areas still held by Ukraine include the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, which Kyiv describes as fortress cities. They sit behind dense lines of trenches, bunkers, minefields and anti-tank defences. Ukrainian officials see them as critical to preventing further Russian advances.

Military planners in Kyiv argue that land west of Donetsk is flatter and harder to defend. Losing the region, they fear, would allow Russian forces to push deeper into Ukraine and threaten areas as far as the eastern bank of the River Dnipro.

Zelenskiy has warned that handing over Donetsk would give Moscow time and space to rearm. “Any pause would only be used to prepare new assaults,” he has said.

Read also: Putin says Russia will take all of Ukraine’s Donbas region militarily or otherwise – Reuters

According to Zelenskiy, Washington has floated a proposal under which Donbas would become a demilitarised free economic zone, with neither Russian nor Ukrainian troops deployed there. The White House has declined to comment on the details of the talks.

Trump, United States president, said after meeting Zelenskiy in Davos that the war must end, but offered no sign of a breakthrough. He has criticised the idea that any land deal would require a referendum, saying there would be “some land swapping going on”.

The Kremlin has suggested it could deploy national guard units or police to Donbas instead of regular troops under a peace deal. Yuri Ushakov, a senior Kremlin aide, told Kommersant last month that the territory was Russian and would have to be administered by Moscow, a position Kyiv is unlikely to accept.

Zelenskiy has said he lacks the authority to cede territory. Under Ukraine’s constitution, any change to national borders must be approved by a referendum backed by three million voters across at least two-thirds of the country’s regions.

For now, the fate of Donetsk remains the biggest obstacle to peace, underlining how far apart Moscow and Kyiv still are despite renewed diplomatic efforts, Reuters reported

Faith Omoboye is a foreign affairs correspondent with background in History and International relations. Her work focuses on African politics, diplomacy, and global governance.

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