That would include both the Donbas in its entirety and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Ukrainian officials say that Russia is hardly ready for serious peace talks and that their forces - despite considerable losses in the Donbas and in Mariupol - have the momentum in the war.įor now, some in Ukraine are insisting that the only outcome it will abide is the restoration of all territory lost to Russia since 1991, when it gained independence from the Soviet Union. German, French and Italian suggestions of a cease-fire have been rejected angrily and even bitterly by Kyiv as selfish and poorly timed. He added that “we have to bring Moscow to the negotiating table.” “A cease-fire must be achieved as soon as possible,” the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, urged on Thursday, opening a parliamentary debate on Italy’s role in backing Ukraine. With the conflict coming ever closer to a stalemate and both sides fighting in the Donbas region to gain the upper hand, calls for a cease-fire have grown louder, along with questions about what would constitute victory, or at least a suitable outcome, for Ukraine. The war is now set to enter its fourth month, and while Moscow has been forced to retreat first from outside the capital, Kyiv, and more recently from the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, neither side is currently making more than incremental gains. Zelensky asserted, Ukraine has “broken the backbone of the largest, or one of the strongest, armies in the world.” The Ukrainian military, for its part, said that in the past day it had repulsed 11 attacks in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbas region, and had destroyed eight tanks as well as other Russian combat vehicles. Damaged and burned vehicles on Monday at a steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, which Russia said it had taken control of.
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