100th day of war, Russia controls 20% of the country, according to kyiv

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The context

Live hosted by Alexandre Priam

Cover image: Columns of smoke rise in the sky over Sievierodonetsk, in the Luhansk region. The city is 80% controlled by the Russian army. June 2, 2022. ARIS MESSINIS / AFP

The contributions of this live tracking are activated between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Paris time.

• A fifth of Ukraine in Russian hands. Prior to the invasion, Russian or pro-Russian forces controlled 43,000 km² of Ukrainian territory, since the annexation of Crimea and the capture of a third of Donbass in 2014. Since February 24, they have notably advanced in the east and south, along the Black Seas and Azov, now dominating a strategic coastal corridor linking eastern Russia to Crimea. Today, it is nearly 125,000 km²or 20% of the country which would be in the hands of Moscow, declared Thursday, June 2 the president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Sievierodonetsk crystallizes the attention of Moscow. “The most difficult situation” concerns Luhansk, one of the two regions of Donbass, recalled the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valeri Zalouzhny. Sievierodonetsk, the administrative capital of the region, is “80% occupied” by Russian forces and fighting rages in the streets, Luhansk region governor Serhi Haidai said. Mr. Zelensky said in his daily message on Thursday evening that the situation in the Donbass had not “changed significantly during the day”. “We had some successes in the battle for Sievierodonetsk. But it is still too early. It’s the most difficult area right now.”he specified.
• Sloviansk residents urged to evacuate. Russian pressure also remains significant on Donetsk, the other Donbass region, in particular Sloviansk, some 80 km west of Sievierodonetsk. About 100 people left the town in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, now without water and electricity, as the mayor called on residents to evacuate. On Tuesday, a Russian strike killed three people and injured six in the city, and caused great damage, according to witnesses interviewed by Agence France-Presse.
• Gradual return of embassies to kyiv. In his daily address, Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the return of 50 diplomatic establishments to the capital, previously moved to Lviv or elsewhere: “More and more embassies are resuming their full-fledged activities in Kyiv. Each new embassy that returns to our capital testifies to the faith in our victory. Faith that Ukraine will be able to defend its statehood in this war, unleashed on our land by the Russian Federation. »
• Ukraine and the status of candidate to the European Union. President Zelensky did not fail to recall his order of priority: “The main task remains to accumulate maximum support for Ukraine. First of all defensive, financial, and, of course, political. It is very important that now, in a few weeks, we have a response from the European Union on Ukraine’s candidate status. We are looking forward to it. »
• New European sanctions… On the diplomatic level, EU countries on Thursday approved a sixth sanctions package against Moscow including an embargo, with exemptions, on oil purchases, but they gave up on blacklisting the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, under pressure from Hungary.
• … and American. In the United States, the Biden administration has announced a new series of sanctions targeting oligarchs or members of “the elite” from Moscow, including the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova. “I am grateful to President Biden, all our American friends and the people of the United States for their support”, noted Mr. Zelensky Thursday evening. Ukraine is also awaiting deliveries of more powerful rocket launcher systems promised by Joe Biden, hoping that this will change the balance of power on the ground.
• Preparing for “a war of attrition” over the “long term”. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday after a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington that Western countries should prepare “to a war of attrition” on the « long terme ». The war waged by Russia in Ukraine will continue “many months”addressed Mr. Blinken.

Find our live from yesterday here.

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