The dealbreaker

In the days since Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s Alaska summit, the world’s attention has turned to the portion of the Donetsk region that Kyiv still controls — and that Putin wants it to give up. This territory contains Ukraine’s “fortress belt,” a 31-mile stretch of defensive structures and fortified settlements that’s been built up over more than a decade. Western media outlets have argued that this belt is both the motivation for Putin’s demands and the reason his proposal is a non-starter for Ukraine. Meduza assesses these claims and explains the military and political significance of the “fortress belt.”