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The Ukrainian government says it won’t agree a ceasefire deal with Russia that involves giving up territory — in an apparent hardening of its position.
Presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said Kyiv would not follow calls in the West for an urgent ceasefire that involved Russian forces remaining in territory they occupy in the south and east of the country.
He said making concessions would result in Moscow starting an even larger, more bloody offensive in the longer term.
His comments come as Russia continues its attempts to encircle Ukrainian forces defending the eastern city of Severodonetsk.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told lawmakers in Kyiv that the international community had to demand Russia’s complete withdrawal from Ukrainian territory and that sacrificing even an inch of it would be a "huge blow" to the entire West.
"Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to (President Vladimir) Putin's demands," Duda said, the first foreign leader to address Ukrainian lawmakers in person since Russia's February 24 invasion.
"Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future." Shortly after he finished speaking, an air raid siren was heard in central Kyiv, a reminder that the nation remained at war even as the front lines have shifted hundreds kilometres to the south and east.
After ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic southeastern port of Mariupol, Russia is waging a major offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas.
Russian-backed separatists already controlled parts of Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk province before the invasion, but Moscow wants to seize the remaining Ukrainian-held territory in the region.
The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday its forces pounded Ukrainian command centres, troops and ammunition depots in Donbas and the Mykolayiv region in the south with air strikes and artillery.
Ukraine's general staff reported continued heavy Russian shelling of twin cities Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region.
The cities, separated by the Siverskiy Donets River, form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held pocket that Russia has been trying to overrun since mid-April after failing to capture Kyiv and shifting its focus to the east and south of the country.
Reuters was unable to independently verify those battlefield reports.
Ukraine's lead negotiator, speaking to Reuters on Saturday, ruled out a ceasefire that would involve Russian forces remaining in occupied areas or any deal with Moscow that involved ceding territory. Making concessions would backfire because Russia would hit back harder after any break in fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.
"The war will not stop. It will just be put on pause for some time," Podolyak said in an interview in the heavily guarded presidential office. "They'll start a new offensive, even more bloody and large-scale."
Recent calls for an immediate ceasefire have come from US.
