Presidential aide calls for ‘complete restoration of territorial integrity’ as Polish president backs stance during Kyiv visit
After calls for an immediate ceasefire from the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, Podolyak made clear that Ukraine would not accept any deal with Russia that involved ceding territory, and that agreeing to a ceasefire now while making concessions to Russia would backfire on Ukraine because “Moscow would hit back harder after any break in fighting”.
Controlling Mariupol gives Russia command of a land route linking the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, with mainland Russia and parts of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russia separatists. On the Donetsk frontline, 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 Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, according to Ukraine’s general staff.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said that although Severodonetsk had been attacked from “four separate directions”, the Russian forces had not succeeded in breaking into the city.
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