About 200,000 people still live in the Kiev-controlled parts of Donetsk Oblast, which, according to the US peace plan, should come under Russian rule. How do people there feel?
The US 28-point plan stated that in order to end the war in Ukraine, Kiev would have to completely give up its Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including those not captured by Russia, in order to create a "demilitarized zone" there, which would de facto be most likely under Russian control.
After sharp criticism from Kiev and Europe, the plan must be revised. Ukrainian President Zelensky said that several "particularly burning topics" should be discussed personally with President Trump, including this issue. About a quarter of the Donetsk region is still under Ukrainian control. Despite the bombing, nearly 200,000 Ukrainians still live there, according to the regional military administration.
More and more requests for evacuation
So far, there has not been a very lively discussion among the residents of Donbass about the "peace plan", says Anastasia Makhnik from the humanitarian program "Street of Life". In recent days, however, there have been more and more people who want to be evacuated from Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.
The calls were mostly from families with children and people in need of help, who until recently remained in their hometowns, guided by the belief that the situation could still improve. And life there has been relatively calm so far, Anastasia Makhnik told DW - especially compared to other settlements close to the front line. "But now they see that their hopes will not be fulfilled. "Maybe they are also influenced by the news in the media," the woman adds.
Why are they starting to flee Donbass right now?
"From daily conversations, I hear that people here cannot imagine that the Ukrainian government would simply give up its territories, where so many people live. They think that as long as many residents remain here, they will not be abandoned to the whims of fate. However, there is also a certain distrust of the state authorities," says Anastasia Makhnik.
Her impression is that in the event of any compromise, the people of the Donetsk region would not believe in possible Russian guarantees to stop the fighting. And the motives of people asking for evacuation are related to the current situation – The front is getting closer to them, winter is coming, and more and more houses are destroyed and uninhabitable.
Olexy K. (name changed by the editors), co-founder of a humanitarian aid organization for evacuating people from the Donetsk region, shared similar observations with DW. According to him, people from the relatively safe parts of the Donetsk region are leaving their hometowns because of the fear of Russian occupation: "Some are preparing to leave because they fear that one day they might be told: you have two days at your disposal, after which this region will pass to Russia".
For people from the front-line areas of the Donetsk region, such as Konstantinovka or Pokrovsk, the situation is different. People there are leaving their hometowns mainly because their houses are destroyed, there is a lack of food supplies, and there are no communication links due to Russian attacks on infrastructure. "Those who are afraid of Russian occupation have long since left these places. What remains here are mostly desperate people who don't know where to go, and pensioners who fear their property will be looted. They stay until the last - while their houses are still untouched by the destruction," says Oleksii, adding that there are also unscrupulous people who claim they want nothing to do with politics. The man also says that among those who don't want to serve in the army, there are those who would welcome any truce, because then they won't be mobilized.
Maxim Lysenko is also among those who have stayed. He has founded his own clothing brand, and in June of this year he even opened a small shop in a cafe in Kramatorsk. But given the situation in the Donetsk region and international developments, he is now considering moving his company to Kiev.
"I think anything is possible"
A poll by the Kiev Institute of Sociology, conducted in late September and early October, found that 71% of Ukrainians do not agree with the government in Kiev giving up regions still under its control to Russia. In eastern Ukraine, however, only 47% share the same opinion, and 24% would agree to give up territory in exchange for peace. Another 29% have no final opinion on the matter.
For entrepreneur Lysenko, the idea of giving up Donbas to the Russians is "absurd and unimaginable". However, he does not rule out that it could come to that. However, he believes that even if all of Donbas were handed over to Russia, it would not bring peace, but would only give Moscow the opportunity to gather its forces, bypass Ukrainian fortifications in the Donetsk region and continue its invasion. "This would be a defeat for the whole world," he says.
"We saved the capital Kiev, our sovereignty and freedom, but due to the inaction of the international community, we lost a lot of territory. Instead of the aggressor putting himself under pressure, the weaker one finds himself under pressure, and the world watches this theater of the absurd indifferently. It's as if they're rewarding murderers just because they're stronger," says Lysenko.
"It's about human lives"
Katerina Koval fled Druzhkivka, near the front. Today she lives with her family near Kiev. She also believes that handing over the entire Donetsk region to Russia is "completely absurd". "This is not about an empty field, it's about human lives. How is it possible to cede entire cities with all the people who live there? These are not sympathizers of Russia, but people who have stayed in their homes because they don't have the means to evacuate and are afraid of ending up on the streets."
Such a scenario would be tantamount to capitulation, Koval believes, because she too does not believe that Russia will stop its advance only as far as Donbass. She is convinced that the opposite will happen – the threat to the Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk regions will increase. However, she fears that the US could force Ukraine to give up its regions, although such a step would be difficult for the Ukrainian population to accept. "All internal refugees want to return to their homes, even if they are destroyed. This is not just about "your own four walls", but about the feeling of being at home, next to the graves of your loved ones... If there is a Ukrainian state and peace there, we will all return, because that is our homeland".