About 2,000 towns and villages remainwhich Ukraine must liberate from the Russian invaders.
This was stated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in his speech at the 104th Congress of mayors and municipal leaders of France.
This is reported by Ukrinform, referring to the press service of the president.
The Russian war covered the entire territory of Ukraine, but the occupiers temporarily managed to seize part of the territory in ten of our districts. These are more than 11,000 settlements. The total number of towns and villages in Ukraine that have been occupied is more than three thousand seven hundred. These are towns and villages big and small, she said.
In all these settlements we see one thing – a complete lack of opportunities to live normally and freely. We managed to free over 1,800 settlements since Russian occupation. The consequences of the occupation are very similar everywhere. Russian soldiers mined and plundered everything they could. Hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed or damaged in the bombing across Ukraine. The occupiers leave behind a completely destroyed infrastructure.
For six months, people under occupation lived without communication, electricity, normal water supply, he said and gave an example of one city – Kherson. The Russian army occupied Kherson in the spring of this year. On November 11, the liberation of the city began. Of the three hundred thousand citizens who lived in Kherson before, about a hundred thousand remained in the city.
There are still about two thousand towns and villages that we have yet to liberate and rebuild. At least dozens of them were completely destroyed by the attacks of the Russian army – such as Mariupol or Volnovakha.
When Ukraine asks for help in this war, it’s not just about countries clashing – that Russia has come to take our land and resources, which it wants to appropriate. This is a clash of two opposing attitudes towards people and life, Zelensky insisted.
When Russia arrived in a city, nothing remains of normal life. Russia carries repressions and abuses, takes away not only property from people. There are thousands of examples, in particular, of how the Russian army simply destroys residential buildings or cars on the roads. There are thousands of proofs that the destruction of energy, medical, educational and other infrastructure in Ukraine is a deliberate Russian policy. They want Ukrainians to simply not be able to live on this earth. That’s why Ukraine is so grateful to everyone who supports us – our defense, finance, reconstruction, he said.
Let’s not let the cold in winter turn in an instrument of terror from Russia, Zelensky also insisted.
