“Russian troops invaded 3,620 populated localities of Ukraine. 1,017 of them have already been liberated, another 2,603 need to be liberated. As of today, about 20% of our territory is controlled by the occupiers, almost 125,000 square kilometers. It is much more than the area of all Benelux countries combined,” Zelensky said in his address to the politicians and the people of Luxembourg, Ukrinform reports.
At the same time, the President noted that Russia had launched the war against Ukraine eight years ago. From 2014 to February 24, 2022, Russia controlled almost 43,000 square kilometers of Ukraine’s territory – Crimea and a third of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Zelensky added that currently about 300,000 square kilometers of Ukraine’s territory are contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance.
Moreover, 12 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced persons and more than 5 million, mostly women and children, have left the country.
On February 24, Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops shell and destroy key infrastructure, massively fire on residential areas of Ukrainian cities, towns, and villages using artillery, MLRS, ballistic missiles, drop aviation bombs.
