Zelensky: No one knows how long war will be but Ukraine defying expectations
- ‘Remember how in Russia, in the beginning of May, they hoped to seize all of the Donbas? It’s already June. Donbas is holding on’
- Meanwhile, around 800 people were hiding in bomb shelters under a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, city at epicentre of battle in eastern Ukraine for control over industrialised Donbas region
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said no one knows how long the war in his country will last but Ukrainian forces are defying expectations by preventing Russian troops from overrunning eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been fiercest for weeks.
Zelensky said he was proud of Ukrainian defenders managing to hold back the Russian advance in the Donbas region, which borders Russia and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the territory for eight years.
“Remember how in Russia, in the beginning of May, they hoped to seize all of the Donbas?” the president said late Saturday in his nightly video address. “It’s already the 108th day of the war, already June. Donbas is holding on.”
Bitter fighting has raged in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of 100,000. It, and the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, are the last major areas of the Donbas’ Luhansk province not under the control of the pro-Russia rebels.
