Ukraine news on Sunday: Andrzej Duda in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenkyj excludes a ceasefire

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Course Kyiv: President Andrzej Dudak of Poland (addressing troops during a NATO exercise in Nowogrod, Poland on May 19)

Photo: WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP

Bulgaria accuses Russia of bribery

8.45 a.m.:

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has accused Russia of using corruption as a tool of foreign policy.

"We have recognized that both belong together: the fight against corruption and the fight against dependence on Russia," said Petkov of the "Welt am Sonntag".

Putin uses corruption as a foreign policy tool, for example in the construction of the Balkan Stream gas pipeline.

As an example, the prime minister cited that a former government adviser drove a "brand new SUV" paid for by a construction company that built the Balkan Stream pipeline.

»This pipeline, although paid for with 1.5 billion euros from Bulgarian taxpayers' money, does not even supply gas to Bulgaria.

It exclusively serves Russia's geopolitical interests,

Poland's president to address Ukrainian parliament

7.14 a.m .:

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has returned to the capital Kiev to support Ukraine, which has been marked by Russia’s war.

The Polish presidential administration in Warsaw announced that on Sunday he would be the first head of state to give a speech in the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, since the war began three months ago.

Duda is committed to ensuring that Ukraine is granted EU candidate status as quickly as possible.

The Polish head of state had already visited Kyiv after the outbreak of war in April and also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj there.

After his return, Duda accused Russia of waging a "total war" in Ukraine.

At the time, Duda originally suggested that Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also take part in the trip.

However, there were signals from Kyiv at the time that Steinmeier was not welcome there.

The upsets are now considered cleared.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) was the only member of the German government to have been in Kyiv this month since the outbreak of war.

Selenskyj sees the end of the war only through diplomacy

2.42 a.m .:

From the point of view of President Volodymyr, the war in Ukraine can ultimately only be ended through diplomacy.

The war will be "bloody, there will be fierce fighting, but it will only end definitively through diplomacy," Selenskyj told Ukrainian television station ICTV on Saturday.

At the same time he demanded further arms deliveries from the West.

"There are things that we can only achieve at the negotiating table," Zelenskyi said in the ICTV interview.

He spoke out in favor of a document on security guarantees for Ukraine to be signed "by the friends and partners of Ukraine, without Russia".

At the same time, there should be bilateral negotiations with Russia.

However, Ukraine ruled out an imminent ceasefire, which US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi had called for.

"The war will not end" if his country makes concessions, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters news agency.

"They will start a new, bloodier and bigger offensive," Podolyak said of the Russian forces.

In his late-night message, Zelenskyy said attacks on the main front in the eastern Donbass region had already intensified after Russia took control of the port city of Mariupol.

"The situation in the Donbas is extremely difficult," the president said.

The Russian army tried to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, but the Ukrainian troops stopped their advance.

DGB calls for a turnaround in refugee policy

1:00 a.m .:

The chairwoman of the German trade union federation, Yasmin Fahimi, has called for a fundamental turnaround in German refugee policy.

It should be based on the regulations for war refugees from Ukraine.

"I'm thinking of the quick right to basic security, but above all direct access to the training and job market," she told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

"I don't really understand why we still maintain this system of distinguishing between basic security and asylum seeker benefits," she explained.

At the same time, Fahimi complained about bureaucratic hurdles in integrating Ukrainian refugees.

»Before the refugees can claim any services, they have to go to the immigration authorities to have their stay confirmed.

They need a personal appointment for this – and that is the bottleneck at the moment.

That often takes many weeks.«

Fahimi said it was a dangerous phase in which people from Ukraine were getting "unwell-intentioned and sometimes illegal job offers."

She warned not to see the refugees as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers in Germany.

The events of Saturday

Saturday, May 21:

According to Russian information, the last Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol have given up, Russia is stopping gas deliveries to Finland and publishing a list of US citizens who are banned from entering the country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is setting conditions for Sweden and Finland to join NATO , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj calls for new sanctions against Russia.

Read the events of the previous day here.

This article will be continuously updated.

ak/dpa/AFP/Reuters