Dozens of soldiers and civilians fall victim to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine every day. In view of the enemy's military superiority, President Zelenskyj feels compelled to make a historical comparison. He appeals again to the NATO countries to support his country with weapons.
The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost 100 days - and the Russian armed forces now control a fifth of the country. "Around 20 percent of our territory is now under the control of the occupying forces," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The situation in the east of the country is becoming increasingly difficult: "We are losing 60 to 100 soldiers every day." Since the Russian war of aggression began on February 24, thousands have been killed and several million Ukrainians have been forced to flee.
The territory now controlled by Russia in Ukraine is by far larger than the area of all Benelux countries combined, Zelenskyy said in a speech to the parliament in Luxembourg. The area covers almost 125,000 square kilometers, before February 24 it was a good 43,000 square kilometers. Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and since then the pro-Russian separatists have controlled around a third of the Donbass mining region in the east.
The Ukrainian president told the US broadcaster Newsmax on Wednesday that the situation in the east was "really difficult". Every day, the Ukrainian army records up to a hundred soldiers killed and around 500 wounded. After the Russian military operation stalled in the first weeks of the war, Russia has been concentrating since the end of March on conquering the Donbass and creating a continuous land corridor south to Crimea.
In the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Luhansk region, the Russian armed forces now control "80 percent of the city," as regional governor Serhiy Gajday announced on Thursday night. Ukrainian soldiers are still entrenched in the city's industrial area. Should the city fall completely into the hands of Russian forces, they would have de facto control of the entire Luhansk region.
Ukrainian army chief Valeriy Zalushnyi said his soldiers in Luhansk were facing the "most difficult situation" at the moment. "The enemy has an operational advantage in terms of artillery," he said in a phone call with French chief of staff Thierry Burkhard. In his view, the Ukrainian troops should be switched to NATO types of weapons "as soon as possible". "That would save lives," said Saluschnyj.
Ukraine is hoping for the multiple rocket launchers recently promised by the United States, which have greater range and precision. Germany also intends to deliver four MARS II multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine by the end of June. Chancellor Olaf Scholz also announced the delivery of the modern air defense system IRIS-T-SLM on Wednesday. This would allow "an entire city to be protected from Russian air raids," said the Chancellor.
The Ambassador of Ukraine in Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who had harshly criticized the federal government for weeks because of hesitant arms deliveries, then praised Scholz's announcements. "We are happy that things are finally moving and that the ice has been broken," Melnyk told the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten". "It is precisely the IRIS system that we have been working on behind the scenes for almost three months."
According to Zelenskyy, his country already considers itself part of the European Union. "Ukraine has already become a de facto member of the EU," said the President in the video address to the Luxembourg Parliament. "I believe that Ukraine is already showing by its actions that it meets the European criteria." Selenskyj was convinced that Luxembourg would work to obtain the official status of an EU accession candidate in June and "to become an EU member in an accelerated process".
"Europe is facing a major test. Is Europe capable of defending its values?" Without naming Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian president said: "You have to stop this individual from destroying European values. If we don't manage to stop this man together, then these are dark hours. Dark hours , which we already experienced in the Second World War."
Zelenskyj called for further EU sanctions against Russia and the delivery of "more weapons, modern weapons". The Russian attack on Ukraine is a "disaster of global proportions that reminds us of World War II, when the Nazi threat hung across Europe."
