On 100th day of Russian invasion, Zelensky vows victory

• Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour entered its 100th day.
• “For 100 days, they have been levelling everything”, Sergiy Gaiday
• About 60 per cent of infrastructure and housing had been destroyed,

Ukraine will win the war started by Russia, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour entered its 100th day, with Russian troops pounding the Donbas region.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24, thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled, and towns have been destroyed.

Russia’s advance has been slowed by fierce Ukrainian resistance, which has driven them out of the capital and forced Moscow to shift its focus to the east.

Russia has since taken a fifth of Ukrainian territory — tripling the land under its occupation from 2014 when it seized Crimea and parts of Donbas.

Moscow assessed that “certain results have been achieved,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, pointing to the “liberation” of some areas from what he called the “pro-Nazi armed forces of Ukraine”.

But Zelensky said Russia will not prevail appearing in a video accompanied by the same key political leaders also shown in a video posted on February 24 when they vowed to defend their country.

“Our team is much bigger. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are here. The most important — the people, the people of our state are here. Defending Ukraine for 100 days already,” he said.

“Victory will be ours,” he declared in a show of defiance in the video with the presidential office building as a backdrop.

Putin’s troops are now concentrating their forces in the Donbas, in the east, where some of the fiercest fighting is centred on the industrial hub city of Severodonetsk.

Fighting continues in Severodonetsk’s city centre, the president’s office said, adding that the invaders were “shelling civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian military”.

Severodonetsk “is the toughest area at the moment,” Zelensky said late Thursday.

“For 100 days, they have been levelling everything”, Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said on Telegram.

Accusing the Russians of destroying hospitals, schools and roads, Gaiday said, however, that “we are only getting stronger.

“Hatred of the enemy and faith in our victory makes us unbreakable.”

Ukrainian troops were still holding an industrial zone, Gaiday said, a situation reminiscent of Mariupol, where steelworks was the south-eastern port city’s last holdout until Ukrainian troops finally surrendered in late May.

The situation in Lysychansk — Severodonetsk’s twin city, which sits just across a river — also looked increasingly dire.

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About 60 per cent of infrastructure and housing had been destroyed, while internet, mobile network and gas services had been knocked out, said the city’s mayor Oleksandr Zaika.

“The shelling is getting stronger every day,” he said.

In the city of Sloviansk, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Severodonetsk, the mayor has urged residents to evacuate as the bombing intensified and water and electricity are cut off.

Student Goulnara Evgaripova, 18 recounted heavy bombardments as she boarded a minibus to leave the city.

“The situation is getting worse, the explosions are stronger and stronger and the bombs are falling more often,” she told AFP.

And in Mykolaiv in the south, Russian shelling killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian military officials said late Thursday.

“This war has and will have no winner,” Amid Awad, Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement.

“Rather, we have witnessed for 100 days what is lost: lives, homes, jobs and prospects.”

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