Kyiv, Ukraine –
Russia launched an offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas on Sunday as the Polish president traveled to Kyiv to support the country’s Western aspirations, becoming the first foreign leader to address Ukraine’s parliament since the start of the war.
Ukrainian lawmakers stood up to applaud Polish President Andrzej Duda, who thanked them for the honor of speaking where “the heart of a free, independent and democratic Ukraine is beating.” Duda received more applause when he said that in order to end the conflict, Ukraine should not obey the conditions set by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Unfortunately, alarming voices have also been heard in Europe recently demanding that Ukraine succumb to Putin’s demands,” he said. “I want to make it clear: only Ukraine has the right to decide on its future. Only Ukraine has the right to decide for itself. “
Duda’s second visit to Ukraine’s capital since April came as Russian and Ukrainian forces took part in battles spread across a 551-kilometer (342-mile) wedge from the country’s eastern industrial center and as Ukraine seeks membership in the European Union. union.
After announcing full control this week over a sprawling naval steel plant that was the last defender in the port city of Mariupol, the Russian military launched artillery and missile attacks in Donbass, seeking to expand the territory of Moscow-backed 2014 separatists.
To bolster its defense against the invasion, Ukraine’s parliament voted Sunday to extend martial law and mobilize its armed forces for a third time until August 23rd.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the 27-member EU must speed up Ukraine’s request to join the bloc as soon as possible due to Russia’s invasion. Ukraine’s potential candidacy is yet to be discussed at a summit in Brussels in late June.
The Polish government is stepping up efforts to persuade other EU members who are reluctant to accept the war-torn country as members. Zelenski said Duda’s visit was a “historic union” between Ukraine, which declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and Poland, which had ended communist rule two years earlier.
“This is really a historic opportunity not to lose such a strong relationship, built through blood, through Russian aggression,” Zelensky said. All this so that we do not lose our country, so that we do not lose our people.
Poland has welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees and become a portal to Western humanitarian aid and weapons entering Ukraine. It is also a transit point to Ukraine for some foreign fighters, including from Belarus, who have volunteered to fight against Russian forces.
“Despite the great destruction, despite the terrible crime and the great suffering that the Ukrainian people suffer every day, the Russian invaders did not break you. They failed. And I deeply believe that they will never succeed, “he told the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature.
Duda also attributes to “the United States and the leadership of President Joe Biden” the unity that Western nations have shown in supporting Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia.
“Kyiv is the place where it is clear that we need more America in Europe, both militarily and economically,” said Duda, a right-wing populist leader who clearly prefers former President Donald Trump to Biden in 2020. elections.
On the battlefield, Russia seems to have made slow strides in the Donbass in recent days. It has stepped up efforts to seize Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian-controlled capital of Luhansk province, which, along with Donetsk province, makes up Donbass.
Luhansk Governor Sergei Haidai said the city’s only working hospital has only three doctors and enough supplies for 10 days.
In a morning report from the General Staff, Russia also said it was preparing to resume its offensive against Slavyansk, a city in Donetsk province that is crucial to Russia’s goal of capturing all of eastern Ukraine, and saw fierce fighting last month after Moscow troops withdrew from Kyiv.
In Enerhodar, a Russian-controlled city 281 kilometers (174 miles) northwest of Mariupol, an explosion wounded Moscow-appointed mayors at his residence on Sunday, Ukrainian and Russian news agencies reported.
The Ukrainian news agency Unian reported that a bomb planted by “local guerrillas” exploded, injuring 48-year-old Andrei Shevchuk. Many Enerhodar residents work at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
As Russia claims to have captured nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Mariupol steel mine, fears of their fate and future are growing for the city’s rest, now in ruins with more than 20,000 residents feared dead.
Family members of the fighters, who came from various military and law enforcement units, argued that they would be given rights as prisoners of war and eventually return to Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said on Saturday that Ukraine “will fight for the return” of each of them.
The Azovstal steel plant has been the last defender in Mariupol for weeks and has become a symbol of Ukraine’s tenacity. His seizure gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a highly coveted victory in the war that began nearly three months ago.
Denis Pushilin, the pro-Kremlin leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, has vowed that Ukrainian fighters from the plant will face a tribunal. He said there were foreign nationals among the fighters, although he did not provide details.
The Ukrainian government has not commented on Russia’s claim to take over Azovstal. The Ukrainian military told the fighters that their mission was over and they could leave. She describes their retrieval as an evacuation, not a mass transfer.
Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko warned on Saturday that the city was facing a health and sanitation “catastrophe” from mass burials in shallow pits in the destroyed city, as well as damage to the sewage system. Approximately 100,000 of the 450,000 people who lived in Mariupol before the war remain.
As Russia controls the city, Ukrainian authorities are likely to face delays in documenting evidence of alleged Russian atrocities in Mariupol, including bombings at a maternity hospital and a theater where hundreds of civilians have taken refuge.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian court was expected to hand down a sentence Monday for a Russian soldier who was the first to stand trial for an alleged war crime. The 21-year-old sergeant could face up to life in prison if convicted of shooting a Ukrainian in the head through an open car window in a village in the northeastern Sumy region on February 28, four days after the Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Irina Venediktov, said earlier that her office was preparing war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for crimes involving civilian infrastructure bombings, civilian killings, rapes and robberies. Her office said it was investigating more than 10,700 potential war crimes, involving more than 600 suspects, including Russian soldiers and government officials.
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Bekatoros reported from Donetsk. Associated Press journalists Juras Karmanau from Lviv, Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv and other PA officials around the world contributed.
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