Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that one-fifth of Ukrainian territory is under Russia’s control.
While addressing Luxembourg’s lawmakers, Zelenskyy said,” At least 261 children have been killed and 460 injured since the start of the war, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general. The tally does not include places of active conflict.
“As of today, about 20 per cent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers, almost 125 thousand square kilometres. This is much larger than the area of all the Benelux countries combined,” he said.
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters the fourth month, the focus has now shifted to the eastern part of the country.
Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar last week said the fighting has reached its maximum intensity.
He said fighting continues along the front line that is stretched over “more than a thousand kilometres.”
Moreover, he added Ukraine’s Donbas region is “simply devastated,” describing it as “once one of the most powerful industrial centres in Europe.”
According to Zelenskyy, over 30,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war began over three months ago. However, these figures could not be verified.
“That’s greater than the death toll of the Soviet Union in 10 years of war in Afghanistan, greater than Russia’s death toll in two Chechen wars,” he claimed.
