The Ukraine war has completed 100 days since Vladimir Putin began his “special military operation’ in February to, what he justified as, a mission to “denazify” the country. Worrying developments are now emerging from the war-torn nation as the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that the Russian forces have seized 20 per cent of the territory. The Moscow troops are inching towards a major victory in the eastern region as it gained control of 70 per cent of Ukraine’s industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, reports said. Meanwhile, the United States pledged another package of weapons worth $700 million to help Kyiv fight Russia. This will include advanced rocket systems with a range of up to 80 km (50 miles). “We are expecting more good news on weapon supplies from other partners… We are working to bring the supply of modern combat systems to a much higher level,” Zelenskyy said.
Here are the 10 latest updates from the war:
1) “Today, about 20 percent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers,” Zelensky said on Thursday. The Russian troops are continuing to focus on the industrial Donbas region, comprising Luhansk and Donetsk, in the hope of a high-profile victory.
2) Moscow’s forces were also attempting to advance south towards the Ukraine-held cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk, the governor was quoted as saying in reports. “The entire temporarily-occupied territory of our state is now a complete disaster zone, for which Russia bears full responsibility,” Zelensky was quoted as saying.
3) Seizing Luhansk would accomplish one of Putin’s stated aims and shift battlefield momentum further in Russia’s favour after its forces were pushed back from the capital Kyiv and the north.
4) Hitting back at the US for sending weapons to Ukraine, Russia accused the US of adding “fuel to fire.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also asserted that the move will not change the course of the war, dubbed as “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine.
5) “Pumping (Western) weapons into Ukraine does not change all the parameters of the special operation,” Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
6) However, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Ukraine had assured it would not use the systems to hit targets inside Russia. US President Joe Biden has also assured on multiple occasions of the same.
7) The United States on Thursday added 71 Russian and Belarusian entities to its trade blacklist including several aircraft factories and shipbuilding and research institutes in its latest effort to deprive the Russian military of US technology and other items.
8) The global food crisis is set to deepen with Russia now controlling some of Ukraine’s biggest seaports and critical Black Sea shipping routes. Ukraine’s grain traders’ union have also said that this year’s wheat harvest was likely to drop to 19.2 million tonnes from a record 33 million in 2021.
9) The global oil crisis might see some relief as producers including Saudi Arabia have agreed to add 648,000 barrels per day to the market in July, up from 432,000, according to AFP.
10) Turkey’s state-run news agency on Thursday said officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations will meet in Istanbul soon to discuss plans for the establishment of a “corridor” that would allow the export of Ukrainian agricultural products.
(With agency inputs)
