Zelenskyy says Russia now controls one-fifth of Ukraine
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Dan Bilefsky
KYIV –As Moscow’s war in Ukraine approached its 100th day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Thursday (2) said Russia now occupied one-fifth of the country, with fighting raging from Kharkiv in the northeast to the city of Mykolaiv in the south.
“If you look at the entire front line — and it is, of course, not straight — this line is more than a thousand kilometres,” Zelenskyy told the Parliament of Luxembourg in a virtual speech Thursday. “Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the front line for more than a thousand kilometres.”
He said the Ukrainian territory now controlled by Russia was comparable to the area of the Netherlands.
The consequences of the war also appeared to be reverberating far beyond Ukraine on Thursday, with the group of oil-producing nations known as OPEC+ agreeing to a larger increase in supply than planned for July and August.
The group suggested in a news release that it was responding to a reopening from lockdowns in countries such as China. But Washington has been pressing for an increase in supply to address the soaring oil prices that are damaging the economies of the United States and other countries and threatening to alienate American voters in midterm elections. Some fear they could also whittle away at support for helping Ukraine battle Russia.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces struggled to hold onto territory along the war’s eastern front, even as officials said its forces were making progress in limited counterattacks in the south, trying to take advantage of Moscow’s decision to concentrate its campaign — and its forces — in the east.
Amid the intense fighting and heavy losses being suffered by both the Russian and Ukrainian armies, the arrival of ever more sophisticated and powerful Western weapons from the United States and Germany, among others, could soon alter the dynamic on the battlefield.
For now, Moscow’s main military effort is being directed at the capture of Sievierodonetsk, the last major city in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine that is not in Russian hands. Using their advantage in artillery power, Russian forces have pounded targets in the area for weeks and have now gained control over more than 70% of the city.
Ukrainian troops pushed Russian soldiers back several blocks in street battles, a regional official said Thursday, even as Russia renewed its effort to surround Ukrainian soldiers.
In other developments:
— Zelenskyy accused Russia of forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from occupied territories, calling the continuing campaign “one of Russia’s most heinous war crimes.”
— Ukraine has suffered heavy losses in the conflict, and for many soldiers, its cost is measured in fear and pain.
— The city of Odesa in the south is on alert after a warning about an intensification of Russian activity around Snake Island. Russia seized control of the island in the Black Sea early in the conflict, making it easier for its navy to control the Black Sea and threaten the city.
-New York Times