"Do you remember how Russia hoped to capture the entire Donbas in early May? It is already the 108th day of the war, it is already June. Donbas is holding on," Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian and Russian authorities said Sievierodonetsk, an eastern city with a prewar population of 100,000, remained contested, although regional governor Serhiy Haidai called the situation there "extremely difficult.'' The city and neighboring Lysychansk are the last major areas of the Donbas' Luhansk province not under the control of the pro-Russia rebels.
Zelenskyy urged the world to hold Russia accountable for the deaths and destruction it has brought to his country. And he estimated that about 32,000 Russians have died.
"For what? What did it give you, Russia?" Zelenskyy said. "No one can say now how long this burning of souls by Russia will last. But we must do everything to make the occupiers regret that they have done all this."
Three-and-a-half months into the Russian invasion of its neighbor, the Ukrainians' defense of Kyiv – forcing the Kremlin to abandon its plans to capture the capital city –remains a landmark moment in the war.
One of the heroes of that stand turns out to be a teenage boy armed with nothing more than a small drone.
Andriy Pokrasa, 15, and his dad, Stanislav, are being hailed in Ukraine for their volunteer drone reconnaissance work in the early days of the conflict, when Russian troops barreling in from the north made an ultimately failed attempt to take Kyiv and bring the country to its knees.
The father-and-son team spent the first week of the war taking aerial photos of the approaching Russian military and pinpointing the coordinates. They provided the information to Ukrainian forces, which rained shells down on the invaders, helping to fend them off.
Stanislav Pokrasa, 41, told the Associated Press he didn't hesitate to leave the piloting to the boy. “I can operate the drone, but my son does it much better,'' he said. "We immediately decided he would do it.”
Andriy Pokrasa described the experience as frightening but satisfying for the sense of helping Ukraine repel the unprovoked Russian assault. “I was happy that we destroyed someone,” he said. “I was happy that I contributed, that I was able to do something, not just sitting and waiting.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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