Lore Vanhaeleweyn
Journalist at HLN
Source: The Kyiv Independent, The New York Times, Belga
The name ‘Donnyland’ is reminiscent of Disneyland and is a portmanteau of Donbas and Donald. When a Ukrainian negotiator first dropped the term, it was meant as a joke.
With the name, the negotiator wanted to encourage the Trump administration to take a tougher stand against Russian territorial demands in those negotiations, which have since broken down.
“The most important thing is that Donetsk and Luhansk remain Ukrainian, as long as it does not become ‘Putinland’,” President Zelensky now responds to questions from journalists about the article by ‘The New York Times’. “During negotiations I do not use terms other than Donetsk, Luhansk, our Donbas, Ukrainian territory. There are no other names.”
Suck at Trump
While it seems like an absurd idea that “may seem shocking” to many, writes The New York Times, it also reflects “a global reality in which governments are appealing to Trump’s vanity to sway American power.”
One of the Ukrainian negotiators is said to have even designed a gold-green flag for Donnyland and an anthem — with the help of ChatGPT, of course. It is not clear whether the American delegation ever saw it.
The approach has so far yielded little for Ukraine. The term is still circulating in conversations, but as far as we know it has not been included in official documents.
