Ukraine war latest: 'Not Putinland' — Zelensky pushes back on 'Donnyland' Donbas proposal

Prefer on Google by The Kyiv Independent news desk President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks alongside France's President Emmanuel Macron (not pictured) to members of the media prior to their meeting at the Elysee presidential palace on Sept. 3, 2025, in Paris, France. (Antoine Gyori - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) Key developments on April 22: President Volodymyr Zelensky said the key issue is that Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts remain part of Ukraine when asked about a reported proposal to rename part of Donbas "Donnyland" in honor of U.S. President Donald Trump. The comment followed a New York Times report that Ukrainian officials involved in recent peace talks floated the idea of renaming a portion of the region to appeal to Trump and encourage a firmer stance against Russia's territorial demands. "The main thing is that Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast remain Ukraine — as long as it's not 'Putinland.' That is the most important thing," Zelensky told reporters on April 22, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the New York Times, the renaming idea was raised partly in jest but also as a diplomatic gesture. The proposed "Donnyland" label — referencing Donetsk , Donald, and Disneyland — would apply to roughly 2,000 square miles in the northwestern part of Donetsk Oblast. "During my negotiations, I use no other terms than Donetsk Oblast, Luhansk Oblast, our Donbas, and the territory of Ukraine; there are no other terms," Zelensky said. "As for other names, I cannot tell you the nature of any dialogue between the parties." While there are few details about the plan, negotiators reportedly suggested that Trump's Board of Peace , which does not include Ukraine or Russia, could help administer the area. The proposal, seen as an attempt to appeal to Trump's vanity, has not been reflected in any official documents or yielded clear gains for Kyiv. U.S.-facilitated talks in recent months have focused on the future of the Donbas , a region in eastern Ukraine that includes the partially occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Territorial control remains the central issue, with Moscow pressuring Kyiv to withdraw from areas it still holds — territory Russia has been unable to fully capture militarily since fighting began in 2014. Trump , who pledged during his campaign to end the war within 24 hours, has spent more than a year pursuing a negotiated settlement. His administration has held multiple rounds of talks with both Ukrainian and Russian officials, prompting frustration in Kyiv, where some officials say Washington has acted more as a mediator than an ally. More than 2,100 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia have been brought back to Ukraine by the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on April 22. The number was provided to Zelensky during a meeting with Oleksandr Bevz and Maksym Maksymov, representatives of the Bring Kids Back UA team. The initiative has been tracing and returning Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories and Russia since 2023. Out of the 2,100 children, 150 have been returned to Ukraine since the beginning of 2026, Zelensky said. A special commission under Ukraine's Ministry of Justice continues to analyze and verify data on each case of the abduction of Ukrainian children, he added. Zelensky also announced a ministerial-level meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children that will take place in Brussels on May 11. "Ukraine expects broad representation, concrete decisions, and practical support from partners," Zelensky said . On March 10, the United Nations (UN) published an investigation in which it stated that the forced deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children by Russia throughout its full-scale war in Ukraine amounts to crimes against humanity. According to Ukraine's national " Children of War " database, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted from occupied territories and taken to Russia or Russian-controlled areas since February 2022. Some 1.6 million remain under Russian occupation, according to Bring Kids Back UA. Ukrainian officials estimate the real figure of abducted children could be far higher. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets puts the number at up to 150,000 , while Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Daria Herasymchuk has given a range of 200,000–300,000 . In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for their role in state-sanctioned child abductions. Oleksii Kharchenko, the head of Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, denied Russia's claim that its troops have fully taken control of Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, saying 14 settlements remain unoccupied by Moscow. On April 21, Russia's Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, announced that its forces had "fully completed" the occupation of Luhansk Oblast. The Russian Defense Ministry last made the same claim on April 1. Russia currently occupies most of the region, as the city of Luhansk and the regional government are controlled by Kremlin-installed proxies. But a small parcel of land on the western border of Luhansk Oblast remains contested. In an April 22 comment to the Kyiv Independent, Kharchenko said that part of Luhansk Oblast remains under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces which "have not lost any ground there for quite some time." According to Kharchenko, 14 settlements in Luhansk Oblast are not under Russian control . These villages and towns are either in the middle of active battles, in a gray zone, or remain under Ukrainian control. "(Russia) needs significant victories on the battlefield by May 9 (Russia's Victory Day celebrations). But there are none. That is why the invaders are trying to pass off wishful thinking as reality," Kharchenko said. Kharchenko added that Ukraine's troops are stationed in Novoyehorivka and Hrekivka areas. Oleksandr Borodin, a spokesperson for Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, also said in a comment to Interfax Ukraine on April 21, that the areas Kharchenko mentioned, along with the village of Nadiia, remain under Ukrainian control despite ongoing Russian offensive operations and significant losses in personnel and equipment. "Therefore, the Russian claims are not true," Borodin said. The battlefield monitoring group DeepState showed the same settlements unoccupied as of April 20. Accurately measuring the control, loss, and gain of territory along the front lines is increasingly difficult , as the contested "grey zone" between Ukrainian and Russian-held territory widens. Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast (Nizar al-Rifai/The Kyiv Independent) Luhansk Oblast makes up part of Ukraine's Donbas and is one of four regions that the Russian Federation has claimed as its own. Russian troops have occupied Luhansk Oblast since the 2014 Donbas invasion. In September 2022, Russia illegally declared its annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Russia continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw troops from the entire Donbas region , including areas that Kyiv still controls. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on April 1 that President Volodymyr Zelensky should decide "already today" to surrender the region. The demand came a day after Zelensky said Russia had given Kyiv two months to pull its forces from Donbas or face additional conditions in U.S.-mediated peace talks, which have stalled amid the continuing war in Iran. The U.S. has run through over half of its stockpiles of key air defense missiles during the nearly two-month war on Iran. A new analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published on April 21 breaks down pre-existing stockpiles of U.S. missiles. For Ukraine, the most significant are air defense systems like Patriots , which Ukraine has, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries, which Ukraine wants . The U.S. and its allies have, per CSIS, used up between 1,060 and 1,430 missiles for Patriot air defense systems out of a pre-war supply of 2,330. When it comes to THAAD ammunition, they estimate between 190 and 290 were fired out of a supply of 360. Ukraine has persistently lamented that the U.S. is using Patriot missiles to shoot down Iranian Shahed drones. Ukrainian stockpiles of Patriot missiles, particularly PAC-3 MSEs, have dwindled precariously, while flocks of up to a thousand Shahed drones and their Russian-made copies will swarm Ukraine in a single night. Ukrainian developers have as a result developed an arsenal of alternative, cheaper tools for anti-drone air defense, maybe most eye-catchingly, anti-drone drones . But when it comes to Russian ballistic missiles like the Iskander-M or Kinzhal, Ukraine remains dependent on outside aid, especially PAC-3 missiles. The Patriot missile maker Raytheon is expanding production of Patriot GEM-Ts in Germany, but those facilities are not yet up and running. Meanwhile CSIS's analysis estimates that PAC-3 MSE missiles take 29 months to contract before even beginning manufacturing. Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian city of Syzran and the surrounding region overnight on April 22, Russian Telegram media channels reported. Photos and videos posted on social media purport to show several damaged residential buildings in the city amid reports of falling drone debris. Loud explosions were first heard around 3 a.m. local time. The regional prosecutor's office claimed that 11 people, including two children, were injured as a result of a collapse at one of the building's entrances. The Kyiv Independent cannot immediately verify the reports nor the claims made by Russian officials. Ukraine's military has not yet commented on the reported attack. The attack comes as Kyiv has intensified its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure in recent months as it aims to reduce the Kremlin's most important revenue source. The city is home to the Syzran Oil Refinery, however, there were no immediate reports of strikes on the facility. The intended target of the attack was not immediately clear. The attack occurred a day after Ukrainian forces struck the Samara oil distribution station overnight on April 21, targeting a facility critical to the country’s oil transportation infrastructure. Samara Oblast , a regular target of strikes deep within Russian territory, is located approximately 750 kilometers from the Ukraine-Russia border. Ukraine has regularly targeted Russia's military-industrial complex in an effort to cripple Moscow's war machine. 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