For more than a decade, the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine has been the focal point of intense battles and diplomatic disputes between Kyiv and the Kremlin. Now it could be on the table in peace talks with the United States.

Ukraine’s Donbas region, consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk, is at the heart of Moscow’s goals. An industrial powerhouse in the Soviet era, it also has rich farmland, important rivers and a coastline on the Sea of Azov.

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on August 18 in the Oval Office, alongside European leaders from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The meeting followed Trump’s August 15 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska.

Melania Trump took the unique step of crafting a letter calling for peace in Ukraine, having her husband Donald Trump deliver it to Vladimir Putin.

Ahead of his meeting with European leaders Monday, Trump put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to end the invasion of his own country by handing over seized territory and dropping his dreams of belonging to the powerful military alliance.

President Trump and European leaders met for a one-of-a-kind summit at the White House on Monday to push toward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. But by the end of a marathon day of meetings, details on what such an agreement might entail remained elusive.

Trump interrupted his talks in Washington with European leaders to call Putin, an EU diplomat told Reuters. Zelenskiy posted that today marked "a demonstration of genuine unity between Europe and the United States.

At the top of Vladimir Putin’s shopping-list is the western part of Donetsk province, which is still firmly in Ukrainian hands. But it is not just the symbolism that is important to him. The real prize is to force Ukraine to abandon its strategically critical “fortress belt”,