Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejects Russian President Vladimir Putin's demands to cede the Donbas region, citing sovereignty concerns and the area's economic and strategic importance.

Why is Donbas so critical to Russia and Ukraine? This mineral-rich, industrial region has become the epicenter of one of the most devastating conflicts in modern history. From Soviet-era tensions to Putin’s 2014-backed separatist uprising,

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The gulf between Moscow and Kyiv’s positions remains huge, and that is crashing into the expectations set by the White House.

Russia’s goal is to destabilize Europe, a report released Tuesday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies said.

Russian troops currently control about 20% of Ukrainian territory, but the Ukrainian constitution forbids giving up territory or trading land.

The push for a bilateral meeting comes after the US president met Putin in Alaska last week, and welcomed seven European leaders and Zelensky to the White House on Monday. Trump admitted the conflict was "a tough one" to solve and conceded it was possible the Russian president was not interested in ending hostilities.

European leaders during talks in Washington tried to convey to US President Donald Trump the dangers of possible concessions to Russia on Ukrainian territories, particularly the rest of the Donetsk region,