WEB DESK
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces are occupying about 20% of Ukrainian territory as the war approaches its 100th day on Friday and fighting continues on several fronts.
“Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the front line for more than a thousand kilometers,” Zelenskyy told the Luxembourg parliament in a virtual speech Thursday. He said the Ukrainian area controlled by Moscow’s forces is comparable to the entirety of the Netherlands.
Zelenskyy did not say how much territory Russia has captured since the start of its invasion February 24. Moscow seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Russia-backed separatists had also captured parts of the eastern Donbas region, where fighting is the most intense now, prior to the invasion.
Ukraine said Thursday its forces have recaptured 20 small towns and villages in the Kherson region in the southern part of the country. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued their assault on Sievierodonetsk, the last major city nominally held by Ukraine in the Luhansk region in the eastern part of the country.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia controlled about 70% of the city as fierce street battles took place.