Kyiv s stance has become increasingly uncompromising in recent weeks as Russia experienced military setbacks while Ukrainian officials grew worried they might be pressured to sacrifice land for a peace deal.
“The war must end with the complete restoration of Ukraine s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Andriy Yermak, Ukraine s presidential chief of staff said in a Twitter post on Sunday (May 22).
Polish President Andrzej Duda offered Warsaw s backing, telling lawmakers in Kyiv on Sunday that the international community had to demand Russia s complete withdrawal and that sacrificing any territory would be a “huge blow” to the entire West.
“Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to (President Vladimir) Putin s demands,” Duda said, the first foreign leader to address the Ukrainian parliament in person since Russia s Feb 24 invasion.
“Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future,” he said.
Speaking to the same parliamentary session, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed a plea for stronger economic sanctions against Moscow.
“Half-measures should not be used when aggression should be stopped,” he said.
Shortly after both finished speaking, an air raid siren was heard in the capital, a reminder that the war raged on even if its front lines are now hundreds of kilometres away.
Zelenskyy said at a news conference with Duda that 50 to 100 Ukrainians are dying every day on the war s eastern front in what appeared to be a reference to military casualties.
