Ukraine’s president says relinquishing Slovyansk and Kramatorsk would expose key industrial centres to further Russian advances, as reports suggest Moscow is demanding control of the remaining Donbas territory before returning to peace negotiations.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that surrendering Ukraine’s remaining strongholds in Donetsk Oblast could open the way for Russian forces to advance towards some of the country’s most important industrial cities, intensifying the stakes of any proposed territorial concessions.
In an interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast on October 22, Ukraine’s president argued that handing over Slovyansk and Kramatorsk would threaten not only the country’s defensive position in the east but also its economic heartland further west.
“Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka … And that leads straight into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast,” Zelenskyy said.
He named Pavlohrad, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih — his hometown — and Nikopol among the cities that could face greater danger if Ukrainian forces were forced to abandon their current positions.
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“That is the economy of our country,” he said, describing the region as an industrial, engineering and manufacturing centre.
The warning underscores Kyiv’s argument that the territory Russia is demanding cannot be treated as a limited border adjustment. Ukraine’s remaining positions in Donetsk form part of a wider defensive line, and abandoning them could leave additional population centres and economic infrastructure exposed to military pressure.
“If we give up these cities, the risk is very big,” Zelenskyy said. “If they want to go further, they could capture a large number of our cities.”
The comments come amid renewed attention to the terms Moscow may demand before agreeing to resume substantive peace negotiations. At the centre of the dispute is the remaining part of the Donbas — comprising Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts — that Russia has not been able to bring fully under its control.
Reuters reported on October 12, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Russian President Vladimir Putin would return to negotiations only if Ukraine surrendered the remaining Ukrainian-held territory in the Donbas. The area was estimated by the source to represent about 11 per cent of the broader region.
According to Reuters, the demand was conveyed to Ukrainian officials by US presidential special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during high-level consultations in Miami.
The report suggested that securing the territory is seen inside the Kremlin as a prerequisite for presenting any eventual settlement to the Russian public as a victory. Moscow has not, however, committed to specific terms for a comprehensive peace agreement.
The reported American approach also envisages potential agreements on Russian diesel exports and a possible halt to Ukrainian deep strikes against Russian energy infrastructure as ways to encourage Moscow back to the negotiating table. The strategy rests on the assumption that initial concessions by Kyiv could create leverage for Washington to seek reciprocal steps from the Kremlin.
But the prospect of territorial concessions raises a fundamental question for Ukraine: whether giving up ground that its forces still hold would bring a durable reduction in fighting, or instead weaken its defences and leave more cities vulnerable.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected demands that Ukraine surrender the remaining parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts under its control. Kyiv maintains that any settlement must respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and has resisted proposals that would require its forces to withdraw unilaterally from sovereign territory.
On October 19, RBC-Ukraine, citing a source in the Ukrainian government, reported that Washington wanted Kyiv to withdraw its troops completely from both oblasts without offering anything in return. The report highlights the gulf between the concessions attributed to the US position and Ukraine’s stated refusal to abandon territory still defended by its military.
The dispute also reflects the military significance of the cities Zelenskyy identified. Slovyansk and Kramatorsk are among Ukraine’s key remaining urban strongholds in Donetsk Oblast. Their loss would alter the geography of the front line and could complicate the defence of areas farther west, although the scale and speed of any subsequent Russian advance would depend on battlefield conditions and the forces available to both sides.
The New York Times reported on February 18, citing military and Western intelligence assessments, that Putin was prepared to continue the war for another two years in pursuit of full control over the Donbas. That assessment suggests Moscow may be willing to sustain its military campaign rather than accept a settlement that leaves Ukraine in control of territory it claims.
For Kyiv, the concern is that a deal centred on immediate territorial withdrawal could impose lasting strategic costs while leaving the underlying conflict unresolved. Russia’s reported insistence on obtaining the rest of the Donbas before resuming negotiations offers little indication, by itself, of what security guarantees or reciprocal commitments might follow.
Zelenskyy’s warning is therefore as much about the consequences of a potential settlement as it is about the immediate battlefield. The cities at stake are not simply points on a map: they sit along the approach to a wider network of Ukrainian industrial centres, transport links and communities.
Handing them over would mean more than retreating from the current front line, he argues. It could place additional parts of Ukraine within reach of Russian forces while threatening the economic infrastructure needed to sustain the country through a prolonged war.
With Moscow reportedly making control of the remaining Donbas a condition for renewed talks, Kyiv faces pressure over territory that it considers central to both national sovereignty and future defence. Zelenskyy’s message is that the consequences of surrendering it could extend far beyond the land Ukraine would be giving up.
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