By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL – Ukraine’s President Zelensky announced on Monday that Ukraine has formed a “historic” joint customs control with Poland that he said is “the beginning of our integration into the common customs space of the European Union.” He said that an estimate of 100 people are being killed daily in eastern Ukraine and a presidential adviser said that no ceasefire with Russia is possible because Ukraine will not accept any deal that would involve giving up its territory.
Zelensky said the only way to end the war is through diplomacy and for Kyiv to gain a win on the battlefield. The U.S. State Department said that a delegation of U.S. diplomats is traveling to The Hague on Sunday for talks with allies about what they referred to as “atrocities committed in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Zelensky warned of a dire situation in the eastern region of Severodonetsk in Ukraine, one of the last major cities in eastern Luhansk province that is still under Kyiv’s control. But a high-ranking Ukrainian official reports that it is fast becoming what he termed “a new Mariupol.”Military analysts reported that the aim of Russian forces is to control all of Luhansk and that it’s in danger of being cut off from the rest of Ukraine if one more bridge is destroyed.
