Ukrainian military officials have expressed modest expectations for a peace deal with Russia as Donald Trump's deadline for the Kremlin to end the violence expires and he considers meeting with Vladimir Putin to discuss the conflict.
Mr Trump, frustrated that the Russian leader was ignoring his calls to stop bombing Ukrainian towns, issued an ultimatum nearly two weeks ago to impose new sanctions on Russia and secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil unless the Kremlin took steps to resolve the situation.
It was not yet clear what action Mr. Trump planned to take on Friday.
The US president's attempts to put pressure on Putin have so far failed. The larger Russian army is slowly moving deeper into Ukraine, expending significant resources and equipment, and is constantly attacking Ukrainian cities. Russia and Ukraine are radically at odds in their worldviews.
Ukrainian troops are fighting fiercely along a 620-mile front line that stretches from northeast to southeast Ukraine.
The Pokrovsk region in the eastern Donetsk region is under attack as Russia tries to push into the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine faces a severe labor shortage.
Intense fighting is also taking place in Ukraine's northern border region of Sumy, where Ukrainian forces are battling Russian soldiers to prevent reinforcements from being sent to Donetsk.
In the Pokrovsk area, one of the commanders noted that Moscow was not interested in peace negotiations.
“It is impossible to negotiate with them. The only way is to defeat them,” Buda, a drone unit commander in the Spartan brigade, told The Associated Press. He used only his call sign, in keeping with Ukrainian military regulations.
“I would like them to agree and for all this to stop, but Russia will not agree, it does not want to negotiate. So the only way out is to defeat them,” he added.
In the southern Zaporizhia region, a howitzer commander with the call sign “Warsaw” reported that troops were determined to stop the Russian invasion.
“We are on our land, we have no choice,” he said. “That's why we stand our ground, we have no choice.”
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had a telephone conversation with Xi Jinping, during which the Russian leader briefed the Chinese president on the results of his meeting earlier this week with Trump's special envoy.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
