A Ukrainian soldier fires a howitzer towards Russian troops on a frontline in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, August 5, 2025 (Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)
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Alongside Keir Giles of Chatham House, I joined BBC Radio Ulster on Tuesday for a 24-minute discussion of Russia’s attempt to seize all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, as well as Crimea and parts of the south.
To listen, you need to be in the UK or to use a VPN.
Listen to Discussion from 1:16.01
Host William Crawley plays devil’s advocate, asking why the Zelensky Government should not give away unoccupied areas of Donetsk in “peace talks”.
Giles and I respond by noting the strategic as well as political importance of the industrial area of the northern Donetsk region, with fortified towns protecting the rest of Ukraine. Cession to Russia would allow the Kremlin, in the words of Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, to have a permanent “highway to Kyiv”.
This would be a perpetual sword of Damocles over the heads of Ukraine and Europe.
