For President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, the map, displayed at a meeting on Monday with the two presidents and European leaders, presented a far more complicated picture. This was not a business deal or a poker game. This was personal.
Away from the cameras, he told Mr. Trump that his grandfather had fought in World War II to free the cities of the Donbas from the Nazis. He could not just give it up.
On Wednesday, hours after he returned to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, Mr. Zelensky reiterated the point. “There were many such families” who fought to free the Donbas, Mr. Zelensky told reporters. “Many fell and many were wounded. And I explained that this is a particularly painful moment in our history and a particularly painful part of life in Ukraine. It is not as simple as it may appear to some.”
Almost the size of West Virginia, the Donbas is where much of this war has been fought. Tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides have died there for the smallest of gains. Russia is now trying to seize the last 2,500 square miles of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control.
It is not clear where exactly the recent flurry of diplomacy spearheaded by Mr. Trump to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II will lead. But the Donbas — a mineral-rich territory that consists mainly of two regions, Donetsk and Luhansk — will be at the center of any negotiations.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has demanded that Ukraine give up all of the Donbas. His demand includes even the part run by Kyiv, where more than 200,000 Ukrainians live in cities like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, places Mr. Zelensky’s grandfather fought to defend.
For years, Mr. Putin has tried to use the Donbas to manipulate the Ukrainian government. Before invading, he exploited a Russian-backed insurgency in the region as a wedge against Ukraine’s hopes to join Western organizations like NATO. And now, in the fourth year of this war, he wants to not just seize the Donbas, but to use it to politically torpedo Mr. Zelensky, analysts said.
Most Ukrainians still oppose ceding any territory to Russia, polls show,* and the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits surrendering it. Mr. Zelensky faces the choice of either supporting something unpopular with Ukrainians or risking Mr. Trump’s ire.
Mr. Zelensky has avoided questions from journalists about whether he would give up land, saying he could discuss this issue only with Mr. Putin, who has not yet agreed to meet him.
Former Ukrainian officials and political analysts said the only way Mr. Zelensky could convince Ukrainians to cede territory would be to deliver an American-backed security guarantee. That has eluded Ukraine since Mr. Trump ruled out NATO membership.
Whether Russia would accept such guarantees is the real question. Ukraine wants NATO-like protections, but Russia started the war in the Donbas a decade ago in part to block Kyiv’s path to NATO. Why would Russia allow serious security guarantees now?
* https://archive.ph/o/ndVoD/https://www.kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=1535&page=1