JAKARTA - President Zelensky said the Donbas area had been destroyed, describing the area as 'hell' in line with the incessant attacks carried out by Russia.
Since turning away from the Ukrainian capital, Russia has used mass artillery and armored vehicles to try to seize more territory in the Donbas, which consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Moscow claims in the name of the separatists.
"The invaders are trying to apply more pressure. It's hell there, and it's not an exaggeration," Zelensky said in a speech Thursday night.
"(There are) constant attacks in the Odesa region, in cities in central Ukraine. Donbas is completely destroyed," he continued.
Moscow has called its invasion a "special military operation" to rid Ukraine of fascists, a statement that Kyiv and its Western allies say is a baseless pretext for an unwarranted war.
Meanwhile, previously Ukrainian troops in the last stronghold of Azovstal, Mariupol gradually came out of the area, laid down their weapons, and surrendered after fighting for 82 days.
Yesterday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said more than 700 insurgents from the Ukrainian Azov nationalist battalion surrendered in the past 24 hours.
"In the last 24 hours, 771 guerrillas from the Azov nationalist battalion hiding in the Azovstal steel mill surrendered. In total, 1,730 guerrillas, including 80 wounded soldiers, have surrendered since May 16," he explained, TASS reported.
Late Thursday, Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy head of the Azov Regiment which defends the steel mill, released an 18-second video in which he said he and other commanders were still in the factory area.
"Certain operations are ongoing, the details of which I will not reveal," he said.
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As previously reported, Ukraine praised its troops who defended and defended the strategic city of Mariupol for nearly three months, resisting Russian onslaught and being able to change the course of the war.
The resistance rendered Russia unable to mobilize its forces in other battlefronts, a factor Ukraine believes thwarted Russian advances in other areas.
"Because Mariupol withdrew the troops of the Russian Federation for 82 days, the operation to seize the east and south (Ukraine) was stopped. This changed the course of the war," said adviser to Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podolyak.
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