Ukraine Rules out Ceasefire As Fighting Intensifies in Donbas

As Polish President Andrzej Duda was preparing to address the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday, Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow, while Russia continued its offensive in the eastern Donbas region and halted supplying gas to Finland, according to Reuters.

Russia is mounting a big offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas, after ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the vital southeastern city of Mariupol.

Before the Feb. 24 invasion, Russian-backed separatists controlled large swaths of territory in Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk province, but Moscow now wants to conquer the last remaining Ukrainian-held area in Donbas.

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remarked, "The situation in Donbas is exceedingly challenging." According to him, the Russian army was attempting to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk, but Ukrainian forces were holding them off.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Zelenskiy aide, ruled out a ceasefire and stated that Kyiv would not accept any settlement with Moscow that involves losing land. Making compromises would backfire on Ukraine, he argued, since Russia will retaliate more forcefully after any cease-fire.

"The conflict will continue (after concessions). It will simply be put on hold for a while "In an interview with Reuters in the tightly guarded presidential office, Ukraine's chief negotiator, Podolyak, said. "They'll launch a fresh onslaught that will be much more brutal and massive."

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have both recently called for an immediate ceasefire.

After a series of losses in nearly three months of combat, the end of fighting in Mariupol, Russia's largest city, delivers Russian President Vladimir Putin a rare win.

According to Russia, the last Ukrainian military stationed at Mariupol's massive Azovstal steelworks surrendered on Friday.

With full control of Mariupol, Russia gains command of a land corridor connecting the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, to mainland Russia and pro-Russian separatist-controlled territories of eastern Ukraine.

In the last 24 hours, Ukrainian soldiers in the separatist-controlled regions of Luhansk and Donetsk reported they had withstood nine strikes and destroyed five tanks and ten other armoured vehicles.

According to the Ukrainians, Russian forces were attacking civilian structures and residential areas along the whole front line with aircraft, artillery, tanks, rockets, mortars, and missiles. They said that at least seven inpiduals had been slain in the Donetsk region.

According to Serhiy Gaidai, the regional governor of Luhansk, Russian troops demolished a bridge on the Siverskiy Donets River between Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. He reported on the Telegram chat service that there was violence on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk from daylight to night.

The eastern section of a Ukrainian-held pocket that Russia has been seeking to overrun since mid-April after failing to seize Kyiv is Sievierodonetsk and its twin Lysychansk across the Siverskiy Donets River.