Zelenskyy names cities at risk if Donbas is lost

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared these views in an interview with Le Point.

The Head of State is certain that if Ukrainian forces were to abandon the eastern regions, it would encourage Russian president Vladimir Putin to launch a new wave of aggression. He explained that this is what happened in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and later used the peninsula as a springboard for an offensive in southern Ukraine.

"He invaded part of our country’s east in 2014 to use it as a foothold for the full occupation of those regions. If tomorrow we somehow abandon Donbas, which will not happen, we would open an unprotected space next to a city with a population of one and a half million — Kharkiv. He would also seize the industrial hub — Dnipro. This would create new opportunities for him," the President stated.

The Ukrainian leader emphasized that the current struggle is not just about territory but about Ukrainian identity, which Moscow is trying to erase. Zelenskyy stressed that territorial concessions would be tantamount to giving the aggressor free rein to do whatever it wants.

"To those in Europe who reduce the situation to a territorial issue, I say: look at these territories. It’s not just land; it’s someone’s home. It’s also the graves of your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents. There are schools and children there too. This land is mentioned in Ukrainian history books. Films were made there, poems were written. The Russians came to try to erase our identity, to rewrite history. We are fighting to preserve our identity. Our struggle is not only for territory. It is for Ukraine, which is made up of fragments of history and people," Zelenskyy explained.