The loss of donbas leaves kyiv more exposed to the economic grip of Moscow

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy firmly rejected the proposals to concede land to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, in particular the highly contested Donbas region.

The Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, is the industrial heart of Ukraine where coal extraction and steel production are the main engines of economic growth. In the end, the control of mines and factories in the region would give a powerful lever effect in Moscow on kyiv’s economic survival after the war.

“ Our position is clear: ” Zelenskyy and the EU reject the famous Ukrainian lands in Russia

A Ukrainian soldier walks in a carbon mine destroyed from Butovka on the front line with separatists supported by Russia not far from the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. (Anatolii Stepanov / AFP / Getty Images)

“Donbas offers both a military advantage and important economic resources, making it a great goal for the Kremlin,” said Elina Beketova, a member of the Democratic Resilience of the Center for European Policy Analysis.

“The Donbas alone holds large coal reserves – in particular anthracite, crucial for energy and metallurgy,” said Beketova. “Out of 114 mines in the Donetsk region, only 15 remain functional,” she said, because many have been flooded, destroyed or left inoperable by war.

Coal only tells half of the story.

Perhaps the jewel of the crown is salt: the Soledar salt mines, with around 4.5 billion tonnes of rock salt – which makes it the largest reserve in Europe. These mines and the artyomsol factory, the largest producer of Europe salt, came across Russian forces in 2022.

A soldier walks in front of the broken power lines and the infrastructure of damaged artyomsol salt due to hostilities on December 20, 2022 in the Oblast of Donetsk, in Ukraine. (Viktor Fridsshon / Global Images Ukraine / Getty Images)

Beketova stressed that in the long term, natural gas could be the most important resource in the region.

“The region includes the Yuzivka gas field in the Donetsk and Kharkiv Oblasts, with potential reserves of up to 4 billions of cubic meters – a direct challenge to the domination of Russian energy, and probably another reason why Moscow wants a total control of the region.”

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“Beyond coal, salt and gas, the occupied territories of Donbas – as well as zaporizhzhia and neighboring Kherson – are also rich in gypsum, chalk, marble, granite, sand and clay,” said Beketova.

The Russian forces currently occupy about a fifth of the territory of Ukraine, mainly in the eastern and southeast regions, including large sides of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. These areas have undergone partial or complete Russian control at various times during the Kremlin War.

A map of the Institute for the Study of War and the Critical Threats Project of AEI which shows the territorial control of Russia on Ukraine in August 11, 2025. (Institute for the Study of War and the Critical threat Project of AEI)

For Kyiv, the Donbas is more than disputed on the ground – it is an economic rescue buoy, whose reserves of coal, salt and gas could help with the resumption of bank in a country already overwhelmed by huge post -war debts.

The most recent joint assessment of the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Commission and the Ukrainian government estimates that Kyiv faces $ 524 billion in post-war reconstruction in the next decade.

Among the total needs for long -term reconstruction and recovery, housing represents the largest action with nearly $ 84 billion, followed by $ 78 billion necessary for the transport industry and $ 68 billion for the energy sector.

A view of the ruined and abandoned city of Maryinka in the Donetsk region on April 1, 2025. (Images Stringer / AFP / Getty)

Zelenskyy told journalists from the European Commission on Sunday that Putin had tried several times and had failed to seize the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine for a period of 12 years.

Grace Mappes, analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, noted that conceding it from the region would also mean the abandonment of the “fortess Belt” of Ukraine, the fortified defensive line of the Donetsk Oblast since 2014.

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“After having tried and failed to occupy this strategically vital field for more than a decade, Putin now demands that Ukraine concedes this critical defensive position, that the Russian forces currently have no way of wrapping or penetrating quickly, apparently in exchange for nothing and without guarantee that the fights will not resume.”

Ukrainian soldiers participate in a military training exercise in an unhappy place while the war between Russia and Ukraine has lasted for 2 years in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on March 06, 2024. (Images Jose Colon / Anadolu / Getty)

Mappes added that Ukraine’s substantial investment in strengthening its “fortress belt” with defensive structures, logistics centers and industrial defense facilities, underlines its central role in the country’s military resilience.

“Putin’s proposal is not a compromise, rather a ploy to avoid the bloody campaign of several years which would be necessary to grasp the fortress belt and the rest of Donetsk militarily,” she added.