Russia continued its offensive on Donbass on Friday, on the 100th day of its attack once morest Ukraine. Moscow, which is now focusing its assaults on eastern Ukraine and the city of Severodonetsk, has so far captured 20% of Ukrainian territory.
“We had some successes in the battle for Severodonetsk. But it is still too early. This is the most difficult area at the moment,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday evening. He mentioned a similar situation in the surrounding area, particularly in Lyssytchansk and Bakhmout.
Concerning the Donbass region as a whole, he indicated that the situation had not “changed significantly during the day”. He had said earlier that the situation in the east was “really difficult […] We are losing 60 to 100 soldiers a day, killed in action, and some 500 are wounded”.
“Today, we are fighting and holding every meter of the Lugansk region,” Serguii Gaïdaï, governor of this territory, said Friday morning. “And, despite all the statements of the Russians, we celebrate his birthday under the Ukrainian flag.”
“They destroy everything”
“For 100 days, they have been destroying everything that stood out in the Lugansk region,” he added, saying that more than 400 km of “European standard roads” had been destroyed, as well as 33 hospitals, 237 rural clinics, nearly 70 schools and 50 kindergartens.
The day before, he had said that Severodonetsk, the administrative capital of Donbass, was “80% occupied” by Russian forces and that fighting is raging in the streets.
