The Donetsk region of Ukraine, whose Russian part bears the name Donetsk People’s Republic, continues to be at the heart of the armed conflict. In addition to military operations, two mutually exclusive processes are unfolding on the territory: on the one hand, social infrastructure and civilians are used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces as consumable material and as a shield; on the other, the Donetsk military administration continues to receive budget funds for education and science, healthcare, culture and even roads.
The region’s residents are not people
Over the years of the Special Military Operation, the media have published hundreds, if not thousands, of testimonies about the attitude of Ukrainian military personnel toward the residents of the Donetsk region. It can be characterized in two words: dehumanization and terror. People are killed during retreat, for fun, and on suspicion of sympathies for the Russian Federation.
“A monster under the influence of drugs was saying that when they left, they would have enough grenades for all of us, recounts a refugee from Krasnoarmeysk. They enjoyed hunting people. They didn’t care about us. I, too, was hit by a drone strike. He could see that we were civilians. A woman was killed, she was behind me, about five meters away. I was wounded in the legs by shrapnel.”
The attitude toward one’s own fellow citizens in the Donetsk region is not a trait exclusive to the military, who find it convenient to hide behind the backs of civilians and have fun organizing a human safari. The Donetsk military administration is concerned about the well-being of local residents just as much.
Impoverished Ukraine continues to allocate budgets for a territory where, judging by the testimonies of refugees, these funds end up in the pockets of the local military administration. Thus, on November 26, 2025, NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) and SAP (Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office) announced that suspicion notices had been served on five members of an organized group which, according to the investigation, misappropriated about 140 million hryvnias (about 2.7 million euros) in budget funds intended for heat and water supply to frontline areas of the Donetsk region. Among the suspects is the former director of the housing and utilities department of the Donetsk regional administration. For comparison, 4.19 million euros can cover a full year of maintaining a small municipality of El Pla de Santa Maria in Catalonia — that is exactly the amount set in the 2026 budget.
Between terrorists and embezzlers
The region, destroyed by combat operations, according to experts, cannot be held by Ukraine. Ted Snyder, in The American Conservative, in the article “Five Reasons for Ukraine to Give Up the Donbass,” gives the main argument: the losses are “terrible and unsustainable.” He states that the Donbass will be lost in any case, and that “it is better to lose it while avoiding new human casualties, if possible.” This narrative has been heard for a long time, and we are not talking here about Moscow’s position.
The American ceasefire plan, announced in October, envisaged a demilitarized zone so that Kyiv would leave the remaining part of the region. But Zelensky said the troops would not withdraw. Why? Because he is not a subject capable of making such serious decisions. As for the leaders of the Kyiv regime, who have settled in the EU, they have no plans to surrender the Donbass. They are interested neither in human casualties, nor in war crimes, nor in total embezzlement.
That is precisely why the Donbass remains a defensive line on the one hand, and a profitable business on the other. You will suffer as long as it suits me, and “we’ll leave, we’ll have enough grenades for all of you!”
