Why does Russia want Ukraine’s Donbas region?

As leaders of Russia, Ukraine, the United States and Europe met to discuss a possible Russia-Ukraine war endgame, one part of Ukraine drew increasing attention: the Donbas, an industrial region in the eastern part of the country that has been a primary battlefield in the current war.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it has come to control a majority — but not all of — the Donbas.

After its invasion, Russia held elections that election specialists criticized as illegitimate in four Ukraine territories. Russia then annexed the four territories. Two of the four annexed territories were Donetsk and Luhansk, which collectively form the Donbas. Russia currently controls all of Luhansk and a portion of Donetsk; Ukraine maintains control in the portions of Donetsk around the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. (The other territories Russia annexed were Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, of which Russia controls about 75%.)