About 20 percent of Ukrainian territory is under the control of Russian forces—Zelensky

“More than one and a half million people have become internally displaced persons. As a result of the the campaign of invasion, the Russian army controlled more than 43,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory. This area is comparable, for example, to the area of the Netherlands,” Zelensky said while addressing the Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg via video conference. “And for most European countries, such a scale of war would be enormous already. But on February 24, Russia showed that it was not a scale at all for it. It showed that its cruelty is much greater.”

Zelensky continued his remarks as follows: “Russian troops entered 3,620 settlements in Ukraine. 1,017 of them have already been liberated. Another 2,603 are to be released. As of today, about 20 percent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers. Almost 125 thousand square kilometers. This is much larger than the area of all the Benelux Countries combined. About 300 thousand square kilometers are bestrewn with mines and unexploded ordnance. Almost 12 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced persons. More than 5 million, mostly women and children, have gone abroad.”

Zelensky noted that fighting continues on the huge territory from the city of Kharkiv in the east of Ukraine to the city of Mykolaiv in the south.

“A straight line between them is 454 kilometers long. But if you look at the entire frontline, and it is, of course, not straight, this line is more than a thousand kilometers. Just imagine! Constant fighting, which stretched along the frontline for more than a thousand kilometers. Every day Ukraine suffers from Russian missile strikes. Just yesterday, Russia used 15 different cruise missiles. And since February 24, 2,478 missiles have been used. Most of them were aimed at civil infrastructure.”

Zelensky emphasized that his country has to defend its citizens against “virtually the entire Russian army.”

“The occupiers’ death toll is already more than 30,000 soldiers. That's greater than the death toll of the Soviet Union in 10 years of war in Afghanistan. Greater than Russia’s death toll in two Chechen wars. But this does not stop Russia. This state is still ready to lose and kill, kill people,” he added. (ILKHA)