As the soldiers continue to fight at the front, Russian and Ukrainian officials have different rhetoric to evaluate this 100-day conflict between the two neighboring countries. This Friday (3), the Kremlin said it had achieved “specific” goals after “liberating a few places” that allowed its residents to return to a “life of peace”. “Victory will be ours,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an Instagram video.
After this 100-day offensive against Ukraine, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “this work will continue until all the objectives of the special military operation are achieved.” He stressed that “many places have been liberated from Ukraine’s pro-Nazi Armed Forces and nationalist elements”.
On February 24, Russia launched a broad offensive against Ukraine, justified by the need to protect Ukraine from an alleged “genocide” of the Russian-speaking population of Donbass (east), where some areas are controlled by pro-Moscow separatists. 2014.
For years, the Kremlin viewed Kiev’s pro-Western policy as a threat to the country and legitimized the operation with the aim of “purifying” the Ukrainian government. But the Russian siege of Kyiv was unsuccessful. At present, troops are concentrated in Donbass, where fierce fighting has taken place in recent weeks.
“State representatives have been defending Ukraine for 100 days,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a 36-second video recorded at the presidential headquarters in Kiev. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal was with the ruling party leader David Arakhamia, the Chief of the Presidential Joint Chiefs of Staff Andriy Yermak, and one of his chief advisers, Mikhaylo Podoliak.
On Thursday, Zelensky admitted that Russian troops currently occupy “about 20%” of the country.
UN says there will be no winner
“This war has not and will not have a winner,” Amin Awad, Deputy Secretary General and United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, said on Friday. “We need peace. The war must stop,” added the UN official, at a time when talks between Russia and Ukraine have stalled for weeks.
Awad stressed that the Russian occupation “inflicted heavy damage on civilians”, referring to the “destruction and destruction of cities” as well as “loss of life, home, job and hope”.
Awad also said that in less than three months, “about 14 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, had to leave their homes”. According to him, it is a phenomenon “unprecedented in history”.
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the West should prepare for a “war of attrition” in the “long term”.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced. Shall we add to this the 6.8 million, more than half of whom fled abroad? 3.6 million? to Poland.
For several weeks, Ukrainian and Russian armies clashed in the east of the country, in the Donbass mining basin and in the south, where Moscow spoke of the possibility of holding a referendum on annexing the occupied territories.
Russia advancing in East and South
According to French military sources, Russian forces continue to bombard the key city of Severodonetsk, the administrative capital of the Lugansk region, which is currently “80 to 90% occupied”. The Ukrainian presidency reported that “clashing continues in the center of the city”.
“We are fighting and controlling every meter of the Lugansk region,” local governor Serguiï Gaïdaï said on Friday morning, adding that more than 400 kilometers of roads, 33 hospitals, 237 clinics, about 70 schools and 50 kindergartens have been destroyed by the Russians.
Russian forces are also heavily shelling the Donetsk region, including Sloviansk, 80 km west of Severodonetsk.
Since the beginning of the invasion, Russian troops have taken control of areas in southern Ukraine? Most of Kherson and part of Zaporizhia. However, the Ukrainian forces again took the offensive, with battles around Mykolaiv and Kherson. think tank English Chatham House.
In the vicinity of Mykolaiv, near Odessa, overnight Russian bombings left at least one dead and one wounded, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
According to the American Institute for War Studies (ISW), “Ukrainian counterattacks in the northwest Kherson region have pushed Russian forces to the east bank of the Ihulets River and will likely continue to block Russian land lines along the highway.” .
tens of thousands dead
There is no global assessment of the civilian casualties of the conflict. For the city of Mariupol alone, Ukrainian authorities mentioned 20,000 dead a few weeks ago.
Western sources estimate that about 12,000 Russian soldiers died in the army. A French military source, AFP about 15,000. The British Ministry of Defense states that these losses in three months of conflict are close to the losses recorded by the Soviet army in Afghanistan in nine years.
President Zelensky told American media that Ukrainian forces lose between 60 and 100 soldiers in the fighting every day, and about 500 soldiers are injured. news maxWednesday (1).
source: Noticias
[author_name]
