Ukraine rules out ceasefire as fighting intensifies in Donbas

Kyiv, May 22

Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or any territorial concessions to Moscow while Russia stepped up its attack in the eastern Donbas region and stopped sending gas to Finland in its latest response to Western sanctions and its deepening isolation.

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 frontlines 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.

Making concessions would backfire because Russia would hit back harder after any break in fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’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.” — Reuters

Russia halts gas supply to Finland

Russian state gas company Gazprom said it had halted gas exports to Finland, which has refused Moscow’s demands to pay in roubles after Western countries imposed sanctions over the invasion. Finland said it was prepared for the cutoff.