Putin seeks full control of Donetsk Oblast as key to any deal with Ukraine, WP reports * Ukraine peace deal should give no unoccupied lands to 'terrorist' Putin, Zelensky tells NBC * European leaders

Ukraine's Air Assault Forces have liberated the village of Kucheriv Yar in the Dobropillia sector. — Ukrinform.

For more than a decade, Russian aggression has made Ukraine’s Donetsk region synonymous with war. It’s both a symbol of Kyiv’s resistance and a gauge of the conflict’s progress.

Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region is central to the Kremlin’s political and military priorities; its importance -- economic, cultural, historic -- stretches back decades, if not centuries. Why the fixation?

Ukraine and Russia should “stop at the battle lines” and end the war, U.S. President Donald Trump has said, suggesting that negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow should start on the basis of the current territorial situation.

U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly urged his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending the war, warning that Vladimir Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it refused.

Zelenskiy's account, based on a report by Ukraine's top commander, contrasted with Putin's address to senior Russian officers a day earlier.

According to The Express Ukrainian forces have eliminated a Russian sabotage group in Pokrovsk, Donetsk, in what The Express describes as a “brutal revenge attack” for the killings of civilians. The city, under relentless assault from Russian troops, remains a key battleground in the east of the country.