Russia stepped up its onslaught in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Sunday, while Poland’s president traveled to Kyiv to back the country’s Western ambitions and became the first foreign leader to address the Ukrainian parliament since the conflict began.
According to the Polish state-run news agency PAP, Ukrainian parliamentarians stood to applaud Polish President Andrzej Duda, who thanked them for the honor of speaking in a site where “the heart of a free, independent, and democratic Ukraine beats.”
Duda’s visit to Kyiv his second since April, occurred as Russian and Ukrainian soldiers fought along a 551-kilometer (342-mile) swath of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
The Russian military launched artillery and missile attacks in Ukraine’s industrial heartland after declaring full control of a huge seashore steel mill that was the last defense stronghold in the port city of Mariupol, trying to expand the region held by Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.
The situation in the Donbas is “very challenging,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Saturday night video message to the nation, but his country’s capacity to weather nearly three months of full-scale war against Russia “is excellent news.”
“Every day that our defenders divert Russia’s offensive plans, disturbing them, is a tangible contribution to the main day’s strategy.” Victory Day is the day we’ve all been waiting for and striving for,” Zelensky remarked.
In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion, Zelensky said Saturday that the European Union’s 27 members should evaluate Ukraine’s wish to join the bloc as soon as feasible.
“I want to stress that our European integration journey is not solely political,” Zelensky remarked. “Quality of life is at stake” And about the fact that Ukrainians share the vast majority of Europeans’ perceptions on life values.”
Poland is stepping up its efforts to persuade other EU countries that are wary about Ukraine joining the bloc. A Brussels gathering in late June will consider the country’s probable candidacy.
“On Sunday, the free world saw Ukraine,” Duda told Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
“Despite the massive destruction, heinous atrocities, and daily agony that the Ukrainian population endures, the Russian invaders did not break you, they did not succeed, and I am convinced that they will never prevail,” he stated.
Poland is emerging as one of Ukraine’s important friends, having received millions of Ukrainian refugees since Russia invaded its neighbor. It has become a significant entry point into Ukraine for Western humanitarian goods and weapons.
Meanwhile, some foreign militants, particularly those from Belarus, who have volunteered to fight against Russian forces, use it as a transit route into Ukraine.
In recent days, Russia appeared to be making gradual but steady progress in the Donbas. It stepped up its efforts to take Sievierodonetsk, the biggest city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, which, along with Donetsk, forms up the Donbas.
Gov. Serhii Haidai of Lujansk claimed the city’s only operating hospital had only three doctors and enough supplies for ten days.
Russia’s only operational company of BMP-T Terminator tank support vehicles, which are designed to protect main battle tanks, “has likely been sent to the Sievierodonetsk axis of the Donbas offensive,” according to the British Ministry of Defense.
“They are unlikely to have a big impact on the campaign,” it stated, with a maximum of 10 vehicles deployed.
Russia also said it was prepared to begin its offensive against Slovyansk, a city in Donetsk province that is crucial to Russia’s goal of seizing all of eastern Ukraine and was the scene of severe combat last month after Moscow’s soldiers pulled off from Kyiv.
According to the regional governor, the Russian bombardment in Donetsk province killed seven civilians and injured ten more.
According to regional police, a monastery in the village of Bohorodichne was evacuated after being hit by a Russian airstrike. According to the authorities, approximately 100 monks, nuns, and children sought refuge in the church’s basement, and no one was injured.
Concerns grew about the fate of approximately 2,500 Ukrainian combatants taken prisoner by Russia from the besieged Mariupol steel mill, as well as the future of the city’s remaining citizens, who are now living in ruins with more than 20,000 people believed dead.
Families of the combatants, who hail from a variety of military and law enforcement forces, have asked for their release as prisoners of war and eventual return to Ukraine. Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, declared on Saturday that Ukraine “would fight for the return” of every one of them.
Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of the Ukrainian Navy’s 36th Special Marine Brigade, which was one of the key forces protecting the steel mill, was taken into custody by Russian troops on Saturday, according to a video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry. Reporters were unable to independently verify the video’s date, location, or conditions.
For weeks, the Azovstal steel mill was Mariupol’s last defense holdout, and it became a symbol of Ukrainian perseverance. Its capture provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with a much-needed victory in a war he started nearly three months ago.
Denis Pushilin, the pro-Kremlin leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, promised that the Ukrainian fighters at the facility will face trials. He stated that the fighters included some international nationals, although he did not elaborate.
The Ukrainian government has not responded to Russia’s claim that it has taken control of Azovstal. The Ukrainian military informed the fighters that their task was complete and that they could leave. It was described as an exodus rather than a mass surrender.
Early in the battle, Mariupol, which is part of the Donbas, was blockaded, and it provided a horrifying reminder to people throughout the country of the hunger, horror, and death they may endure if the Russians surrounded their communities.
The mayor warned on Saturday that mass burials in small trenches across the wrecked city, as well as the failure of sewage systems, would result in a health and sanitation “catastrophe.” Mariupol had a population of 450,000 people before the war, and an estimated 100,000 people now live there.
“The city is on the verge of an outbreak of infectious diseases, in addition to the humanitarian catastrophe generated by the (Russian) occupiers and collaborators,” Mayor Vadim Boychenko wrote on Telegram.
With Russia in control of Mariupol, Ukrainian authorities are likely to confront delays in collecting evidence of alleged Russian atrocities, such as the bombardment of a maternity facility and a theater where hundreds of civilians were sheltering.
In April, satellite photographs showed what seemed to be mass graves just outside Mariupol, where local officials accused Russia of burying up to 9,000 victims to hide the murder.
