Any ceasefire deal ceding territory is ruled out

Ukraine has said it will not agree to any ceasefire deal that would involve handing over territory to Russia, as Moscow intensified its attack in the eastern Donbas region last weekend.

- Lorenzo Tondo KYIV

"The war must end with the complete restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty," said Ukraine's presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in a Twitter post.

The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, offered Warsaw's backing, telling politicians in Kyiv that the international community had to demand Russia's complete withdrawal.

"Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to Putin's demands," Duda said, in the first in-person address to Ukraine's parliament by a foreign leader since Russia's invasion. "Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future."

Ukraine's lead negotiator in the stalled peace talks, Mykhailo Podolyak, said: "Any concession to Russia is not a path to peace, but a war postponed for several years. Ukraine trades neither its sovereignty nor territories and Ukrainians living on them."