Ukraine will fight the invasion of Russia, its president has said, while the Kremlin has pledged to persist until “all our goals have been achieved” when the Moscow war enters its 100th day with Russian troops. hitting the Donbas region.
“The victory will be ours,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video with the same key ministers and advisers who appeared with him on a challenging show on February 24, the day his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked assault.
“Our team is much bigger,” Zelenskiy said on Friday. “The armed forces of Ukraine are here. The most important thing is that our people, the people of our country, are here. We have been defending Ukraine for 100 days … Glory to Ukraine.”
In Moscow, Kremlin official spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that “certain results have been achieved” by the “Russian military operation”, noting what he called the “liberation” of some areas of the pro-Nazi armed forces of Ukraine “. .
Since the beginning of the invasion, tens of thousands, millions of people have been sent to flee and entire cities have been reduced to rubble since the beginning of the invasion, with Russian forces – driven from the capital, Kyiv, by the strong Ukrainian resistance – now focused on capturing the east.
Moscow has seized a fifth of Ukrainian territory, tripling the land under its occupation since 2014, when it seized Crimea and parts of the Donbas, where some of the fiercest fighting is centered on the industrial city of Sieverodonetsk. .
“This war has not and will not have a winner,” said Amin Awad, UN Under-Secretary-General and Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine. “Rather, we have witnessed for 100 days what is lost: lives, homes, jobs and prospects.”
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Zelenskiy’s office said on Friday that fierce fighting continued in the city center, with invading forces “bombing the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and army.” Luhansk Regional Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian troops were “leveling everything”.
Accusing Moscow forces of destroying hospitals, schools and roads, he said resistance was now limited to about a fifth of the city, with Ukrainian troops still maintaining a large steel and chemical factory in one area. industrial, Gaidai said.
The situation in Lysychansk, the twin city of Severodonetsk on the other side of the Donets River, also looked bad, with about 60% of the infrastructure and homes destroyed and the services of internet, mobile phone and gas out of order, Oleksandr Zaika, head of the city’s military civilian administration. , dit.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleskiy Reznikov said Ukrainian forces had some success in Sievierodonetsk overnight, adding that artillery crews were already training in the new Himar and MLRS rocket systems. committed earlier this week by the US and the UK.
Washington had said this week that it hoped it would take about three weeks of training before Ukraine could begin using the rockets, which could point to later Russian supply lines and help deny the firepower’s advantage. Russian artillery at the front.
Russia’s recent mass assault on the east has been one of the deadliest phases of the war for both sides, with Moscow making slow but steady progress, squeezing defenders out of pocket in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. forming Donbas.
A man walks alongside badly damaged buildings and destroyed cars in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Photography: Francisco Seco / AP
Amid growing fears of a global food crisis, the head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, met with Putin in the Black Sea port of Sochi to express his concern about the consequences of the war. for the mainland.
Russia and Ukraine account for almost a third of the world’s wheat supplies, while Russia is also a major exporter of fertilizers and Ukraine is a major exporter of corn and sunflower oil. Ukraine’s exports have been halted by a Russian blockade of the country’s ports, while Western sanctions have cut off access to Russian production.
Sall called on Putin to “be aware that our countries, even if they are far from the theater, are financially victims” of the conflict. “This is really creating serious threats to the continent’s food security,” Sall said.
Putin did not mention the supply of grain to journalists, but said that Russia was “always on the side of Africa” and was now ready to improve cooperation. “We attach great importance to our relations with African counties,” he said.
Turkey says it expects progress on a plan to unblock grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits the country next week. Both Moscow and Kyiv want a solution to the crisis, a Turkish official said.
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While obstacles remain, such as payment mechanisms for agricultural products and mines floating in the Black Sea, the official said Moscow could “take more positive steps” after it said Thursday it was open to the plan.
Turkey has already said it is ready to play a role in an “observation mechanism” if an agreement is reached, which could involve a Turkish naval escort for oil tankers leaving Ukraine. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu welcomes his Russian counterpart for talks on the plan on June 8.
Belarus was willing to allow Ukrainian grain transit to Baltic Sea ports if it was also allowed to send Belarusian goods from those ports, the country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko said. Ukraine’s exports through Belarus have been one of the options in the UN-led talks.
In a phone call with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday, Lukashenko said that Belarus was ready to release the necessary capacity for its railway for Ukraine’s grain and proposed to hold talks between Belarus, Ukraine and others. countries willing to give access to their ports.
On defense and security, Turkey said that progress in Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO, which Ankara is blocking, ahead of an alliance summit in Madrid by the end of this month it will depend on its response to Turkey’s demands.
Turkey accuses the two Nordic countries of supporting and hosting Kurdish militants and other groups it considers terrorists, and says it has not yet received a satisfactory response from Stockholm or Helsinki.
“NATO is not a tourism or economic alliance; It is a security alliance, which means that it must provide security to all its members in a fair and equitable manner, ”said Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman and chief foreign policy adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.