Zelensky: Russian forces control one-fifth of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Russian forces now occupy about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, almost 100 days into the war.

Zelensky told Luxembourg’s legislature that Russian troops have invaded more than 3,600 “settlements” but that Ukrainian forces have taken back more than 1,000 of them. He said Luxembourg’s motto, “We want to stay what we are,” is what Ukraine is fighting for. 

After withdrawing from areas around the capital of Kyiv, Russian forces have focused attacks on Ukraine’s south and east, scoring a key military victory last month with the seizure of the port city of Mariupol.

Zelensky noted that despite Friday marking 100 days of the current invasion, Ukrainians have been fighting Russia for years since its forces entered the Donbas region in 2014. 

He said almost 12 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced and more than 5 million have fled the country since Russia invaded in February, adding that fighting was raging along a more than 1,000-kilometer line from Kharkiv in the east to Mykolaiv in the south. 

Zelensky visited the front lines of the war in Kharkiv on Sunday, his first public appearance outside Kyiv during the war, as Ukrainian forces began a counteroffensive to repel the Russian attack. The president’s office reported that Russian forces occupied as much as 31 percent of the region, but said Ukraine has taken 5 percent back. 

Zelensky said he is grateful to Luxembourg’s people and its government for the weapons it has provided to Ukraine, despite its relatively small military might, as well as the countries contribution to exerting economic pressure on Russia through sanctions.

“It is reminiscent of World War II, when Nazi aggression threatened the lives of entire nations,” Zelensky said. “Therefore, we must significantly increase the pressure on Russia to stop this catastrophe and prevent such aggressions in the future.” 

He said he expects Luxembourg, as one of the original members of a “united Europe,” will support Ukraine’s candidacy to join the European Union and NATO. Ukraine first applied to join NATO in August, and Ukrainian officials attended their first NATO cyber defense center meeting Monday.