Zelenskyy says Putin wants the rest of Ukraine's Donetsk region as part of a ceasefire

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that Ukraine controls as part of a ceasefire deal.

Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not withdraw from territories it controls because it was unconstitutional and would only serve as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.

Zelenskyy said Putin wants the remaining 9,000 square kilometers (3,500 square miles) of Donetsk under Kyiv’s control, where the war’s toughest battles are grinding on, as part of a ceasefire plan. He said the Russian position was conveyed to him by U.S. officials.

Doing so would hand Russia almost the entirety of the Donbas, a region comprising Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland that Putin has long coveted.

https://apnews.com/article/europe-trump-putin-summit-ukraine-territory-ba56ddbd24d1b7e8e0aca7754d0f180a