Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow on Saturday, as Russia intensified its assault in the eastern Donbas region and halted gas supplies to Finland. Following the weeks-long resistance of the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol, Russia is launching what appears to be a major offensive in Luhansk, one of the two provinces in Donbas. Pro-Russian separatists had already controlled vast areas of land in Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk region before the invasion on February 24, but Moscow aims to seize the last remaining territories held by Ukraine in Donbas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, "The situation in Donbas is extremely difficult." He added that Russian forces are attempting to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk, but Ukrainian forces are preventing their advance. Earlier, Zelensky told local television that although the fighting would be bloody, the end would only come through diplomacy and that the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories would be temporary.
Mykhailo Podolyak, Zelensky's advisor, ruled out agreeing to a ceasefire, stating that Kyiv would not accept any agreement with Moscow that involves conceding land. He said that making concessions would backfire on Ukraine because Russia would respond more forcefully after any cessation of fighting. Podolyak, a chief Ukrainian negotiator, told Reuters in an interview at the heavily guarded presidential office, "The war will not stop (after concessions). It will stop for a short time... After that, they will launch a new attack that will be more bloody and widespread."
Recent calls for an immediate ceasefire came from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. The end of fighting in Mariupol, the largest city captured by Russia, could be crucial in achieving its ambitions in Donbas and would grant Russian President Vladimir Putin a rare victory following a series of setbacks in nearly three months of fighting.
Russia stated that the last Ukrainian forces holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol surrendered on Friday. Complete control over Mariupol would provide Russia with a land corridor linking the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014, to mainland Russia and to the regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Ukrainian forces in the separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions reported on Saturday that they repelled nine attacks and destroyed five tanks and ten other armored vehicles in the past 24 hours. Ukrainians posted on Facebook that Russian forces are using aircraft, artillery, tanks, missiles, and mortars along the entire front line to attack civilian buildings and residential areas, stating that at least seven people were killed in the Donetsk region.
Source: Sky News
