Ukraine rules out ceasefire, concessions to Russia as war rages

KYIV • Ukraine has ruled out a ceasefire or giving any territorial concessions to Moscow following the fall of the south-eastern port city of Mariupol, even as Russian forces pursued their ruthless bombardment of front-line Ukrainian cities yesterday in a bid to keep up their military momentum.

Making concessions would backfire because Russia would strike harder after any break in fighting, said Ukraine's lead negotiator in talks with the Kremlin, Mr Mykhailo Podolyak.

"The war will not stop. It will just be put on pause for some time," Mr Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an interview in the heavily guarded presidential office.

"They'll start a new offensive, even more bloody and large-scale."

The view was shared by Polish President Andrzej Duda, who told Ukraine's Parliament yesterday that ceding even "one inch" of the country's territory would be a blow to the whole West and reassured Kyiv of Warsaw's strong backing for its European Union membership bid.

"Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to (President Vladimir) Putin's demands," said Mr Duda, the first foreign leader to address Ukrainian lawmakers in person since Russia's Feb 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 of kilometres to the south and east.

Ukraine yesterday extended martial law for three months through Aug 23 as the war with Russia drags on. Ukraine's Parliament voted by an absolute majority for the third extension of the decree.

Mr Zelensky first signed the decree along with a general military mobilisation call on Feb 24 when Russian forces invaded.

After ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in 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 the remaining Ukrainian-held territory in the region.

On the Donetsk front line, Russian forces were trying to break through Ukrainian defences to reach the administrative borders of the Luhansk region, while farther north they continued heavy shelling of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in its daily update yesterday.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk across the Siverskyi 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.

The British Defence Ministry said yesterday that Russia was deploying its BMPT "Terminator" tank support vehicles in that offensive. With only 10 available for a unit that already suffered heavy losses in the failed attempt on Kyiv, however, the ministry said they were "unlikely to have a significant impact".

Separately, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, said air-launched missiles hit three command points, 13 areas where troops and Ukrainian military equipment amassed, as well as four ammunition depots in the Donbas.

He said that in the southern region of Mykolaiv, Russian rockets hit a mobile anti-drone system near the settlement of Hannivka.

In more fighting, the Russian-appointed head of the occupied Ukrainian town next to Europe's largest nuclear power plant was injured in an explosion yesterday, a Russian news agency said.

Mr Andrei Shevchuk, who was appointed mayor of Enerhodar following the Russian army's occupation of the town, was in intensive care following the attack.

Meanwhile, Mr Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said in a social media post that 11 people were wounded in Russian shelling throughout the region in the past 24 hours.

Shelling and missile strikes also hit Zaporizhzhia in the south, while eight civilians were killed on the eastern front in the Donbas.

The end of fighting in Mariupol, the biggest city that Russia has captured, gives Mr Putin a rare victory after a series of setbacks in nearly three months of combat. Russia has pledged to rebuild the city and turn it into a seaside resort.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE