Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said today that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a “historic and fundamental error” in invading Ukraine and that Russia was now “isolated.”
In reaction to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine 100 days ago, the West has imposed a slew of punitive sanctions on Russia, notably on the country’s vital oil and gas sectors.
Following Putin’s invasion, Western diplomats have warned that it will now be “extremely difficult for the international community” to deal with him “in the long run.”
‘I believe, and I told Putin, that he committed a historic and fundamental wrong for his people, for himself, and for history,’ Macron said on Friday.
In an interview with French regional media, Macron remarked, “I believe he has alienated himself.” ‘Isolating oneself is one thing; getting out of it is a different matter.’
The French president stated again that Russia should not be ‘humiliated… so that when the conflict stops, we can open a road through diplomatic means,’ and that a visit to Kyiv was not ruled out.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy today declared that ‘victory will be ours’ in a speech to mark 100 days of war, as Russian troops pounded the eastern Donbas region.
Russia’s advance has been slowed by a fierce Ukrainian resistance which repelled them from around the capital and forced Moscow to shift its aims towards capturing the east.
Zelenksy, surrounded by other top officials, said in a video that his county would never stop its resistance against invading Russian troops.
‘Our team is much larger,’ said Zelensky. ‘The Ukrainian Armed Forces are here. Most importantly, our people are here.
‘We have defended Ukraine for 100 days already. Victory will be ours!’
Zelensky later said that Ukraine has ‘done what seemed impossible’ and stopped the ‘second army of the world’.
He said in a Telegram post that Ukraine has ‘liberated part of our territories and continue to give a decent rebuff to the occupiers.
He added that Russia has been ‘unable to achieve any strategic goal’ and has instead tried to ‘shift its powerlessness to civilian infrastructure and people’.
‘Thank you to everyone, thanks to whom Ukraine has survived and continues to defend its hundredth day. We will win,’ he said.
The West has sent increasingly powerful weapons to Ukraine and imposed increasingly severe sanctions, with the EU formally putting an embargo on most Russian oil imports on Friday.
Along with Russian army troops suspected of war crimes, Putin’s rumored girlfriend, former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, was put to an asset freeze and travel restriction blacklist.
In a study published this week, Evgeny Gontmakher, academic director of European Dialogue, stated that Russia today confronts more targeted sanctions than any other country.
He went on to say that $300 billion in Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves have been blocked in the West, and that air traffic in the country has decreased from 8.1 million to 5.2 million passengers between January and March.
Furthermore, the Kyiv School of Economics revealed that over 1,000’self-sanctioning’ enterprises, including some of the world’s most well-known brands in numerous industries, had scaled back their operations in Russia.
Since immediately before the invasion, the MOEX Russia stock index has dropped by approximately a quarter, and is now down about 40% from the start of the year.
The Russian Central Bank announced last week that annualised inflation in April was 17.8%.
Ukrainian and Russian forces are suffering greatly as a result of the combat.
Putin’s generals are up against Ukrainians who are better armed and prepared than they were in the early weeks of the war, despite the fact that their tactics have improved since the unsuccessful attempt to seize Kyiv.
Russian forces have been reduced to approximately half their size before the war began, when between 150,000 and 190,000 troops were massed on the border, according to Western officials briefing journalists on Wednesday.
According to the West, Ukraine has destroyed over 1,000 tanks, which Russia is attempting to replace as sanctions deprive the country of vital components needed to make more.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is losing up to 600 men each day, with 100 dead in combat, according to President Zelensky, who offered the clearest indication yet of the blood debt his force is incurring in the fight against the Russian invasion.
Despite advances by Putin’s army in recent days, Zelensky claimed the situation in Donbas, where the toughest fighting is taking place, is’very challenging.’ He insisted, though, that his soldiers are ‘keeping our defensive perimeter.’
Ukraine is likewise experiencing a severe economic setback.
‘Our direct losses today surpass $600 billion,’ claimed Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s presidential office, referring to nearly 35% of the country’s GDP.
And the Kyiv School of Economics reported on May 25 that $105.5 billion worth of damage had been caused to Ukraine’s buildings and infrastructure, of which $39.9 billion pertained to housing stock alone.
The UN has stated that it is in intensive talks with Russia to enable tens of millions of tons of grain to leave Ukrainian ports in order to avoid a worldwide food crisis.
‘I am hopeful that something will give in, that something will be made,’ said Amin Awad, the UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine, who expressed optimism that we will’see a breakthrough.’
Russia currently controls a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and the country’s Black Sea ports are under Russian embargo.
The United Nations has warned that the conflict will generate a ‘unprecedented’ crisis in Africa, which imports more than half of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia.
Food prices in Africa have already exceeded those in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab springs and the 2008 food riots.
On Friday, Putin met the head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, at his Black Sea residence in Sochi.
At the opening of those talks, Sall told Putin to ‘become aware’ African countries ‘are victims’ in the Ukraine conflict.
After the talks with Putin, Sall said he was ‘very reassured’ and that the Russian leader was ‘committed and aware that the crisis and sanctions create serious problems for weak economies’.
Putin’s army are now concentrating their efforts in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where the industrial center city of Severodonetsk is the scene of some of the bloodiest combat.
The president’s administration said fighting is still going on in Severodonetsk’s city center, and that the attackers are’shelling civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian military.’
‘They’ve been leveling everything for 100 days,’ Sergiy Gaiday, the regional governor of Lugansk, stated on Telegram.
On their trip to Severodonetsk on Friday, two journalists from the international news agency Reuters were lightly injured and their driver was slain, according to a company representative.
The group was traveling “in a vehicle furnished by Russian-backed separatists and driven by an individual appointed by the separatists,” according to the agency.
Following reports that the soldier perished in artillery fire in the neighboring Kharkiv region, the French foreign ministry stated on Friday that a French volunteer fighter in Ukraine had been killed in combat.
Meanwhile, some inhabitants in districts around Kyiv, where Russian soldiers departed at the end of March, are still in urgent need.
Hanna Viniychuk, 67, said she had come for some essential supplies after losing her home to Russian bombardment at an aid distribution location in Horenka, northwest of Kyiv.
‘I appreciate your assistance,’ she said.
According to Gaiday, Ukrainian troops were still defending an industrial zone, similar to the scenario in Mariupol, when a steelworks was the last holdout before Ukrainian troops ultimately surrendered in 2014.
The situation at Lysychansk, Severodonetsk’s twin city across a river, appeared to be deteriorating as well.
According to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Zaika, almost 60% of the city’s infrastructure and homes had been destroyed, as well as internet, mobile network, and gas utilities.
‘Every day, the shelling gets stronger,’ he claimed.
As bombing intensified and water and electricity were cut off, the mayor of Sloviansk, some 50 miles from Severodonetsk, advised citizens to flee.
As she boarded a minibus to flee the city, student Gulnara Evgaripova, 18, described numerous bombardments.
‘The situation is worse, the explosions are becoming more powerful, and bombs are falling more frequently,’ she told AFP.