Zelensky called Donetsk region "the question of this war." Let me explain why in one paragraph, because most Western commentators can't. Sloviansk–Kramatorsk–Kostiantynivka is a fortress belt Ukraine built over ten years, the last high ground before flat steppe to the Dnipro. Hand it over "for peace" and the next war starts 100 km closer to Kharkiv and Dnipro, with no wall in between. Russia isn't asking for territory. It's asking for the starting line of 2029. That's why Kyiv says no, and why anyone who says "just the Donbas" has never looked at a contour map.