Ukraine extends martial law and general mobilisation for another three months
As the Ukrainian parliament ratified two presidential decrees to extend martial law in the country, Kyiv ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow while Russia intensified an offensive in the eastern Donbas region, waging a major offensive in Luhansk.
The Russian army is attempting to seize the cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk, but Ukrainian forces held off their advance by Sunday.
Ukrainian lawmakers signed off on two presidential decrees extending martial law and general mobilisation for three months until 23 August with an absolute majority.
“Business as usual with Russia is impossible” after the massacre in Bucha, Polish President Andrzej Duda tells the Ukrainian lawmakers at the Rada.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview that there will be no ceasefire or concession to Russia since that would allow it to regroup and attack again.
US President Joe Biden signed a bill approving $40 billion (about €37.5bn) in the military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Russian Duma has said it will consider allowing Russians over 40 and foreigners over 30 to sign up for the military.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kouleba called suggestions of anything other than full bloc membership “second-class treatment” by “certain capitals”.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Sunday that “business as usual” with Russia was now impossible after the discovery of massacres of civilians in Ukraine blamed on Russian troops.
“After Bucha, Borodyanka, Mariupol, there can be no more ‘business as usual with Russia,” he said in a rousing speech to the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv — the first by a foreign head of state since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February — interrupted several times by standing ovations.
Hundreds of civilian bodies have been found in Bucha and Borodyanka, towns near Kyiv occupied and then abandoned by the Russian army.
The Ukrainian government has extended martial law and general mobilisation in the country at war since its invasion by Russia at the end of February for another three months until 23 August.
In two votes, the Ukrainian parliament, the Rada, approved the presidential decrees on martial law and general mobilisation by an absolute majority on Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the two decrees on 24 February. They have already been extended twice for one month.
Nearly three months after the start of its offensive, Russia continued its bombardment of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine on Sunday.
After failing to take control of the capital Kyiv and its region, Russian troops have been concentrating their efforts in the east of the country since March, where fighting is intense.
