Fighting escalates in Donbas, Ukraine unsure of truce reached

KIEV – Ukraine waive a ceasefire or concession to Moscow, when Russia intensified attacks in the eastern Donbas region and stopped providing gas to Finland.

After ending the Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol, Russia launched a major offensive in Luhansk, one of the two provinces of Donbas. Russia-backed separatists had controlled swathes of territory in Luhansk and the neighboring province of Donetsk before the February 24 invasion, but Moscow wants to seize the last Ukrainian-held territory in the Donbas.

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“The situation in the Donbas is very difficult,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address. “Russian soldiers tried to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk, but Ukrainian troops restrained their advance,” Zelensky continued.

Ukrainian forces in the separatist-held areas of Luhansk and Donetsk said on Saturday they had repelled nine attacks and destroyed five tanks and 10 other armored vehicles in the previous 24 hours.

Russian troops used planes, artillery, tanks, rockets, mortars and missiles along the front line to attack civilian buildings and residential areas, the Ukrainian side said in a Facebook post. At least seven people died in the Donetsk region, they said.

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Meanwhile, Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak ruled out a ceasefire agreement and said Kiev would not accept any deal with Moscow involving the surrender of territory.

“Making concessions will backfire on Ukraine because Russia will retaliate even harder after the outbreak of fighting,” Podolyak said. “The war will not stop (after the concessions). It will only be postponed for some time,” he continued.

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