- Title: TIMELINE: Putin's key remarks as Ukraine invasion enters 100th day
- Date: 5th May 2022
- Summary: BURNT-OUT TANKS IN STREET
- Embargoed: 19th May 2022 16:05
- Keywords: Bucha Easter Kyiv Putin Russia Ukraine conflict invasion war
- Location: VARIOUS, RUSSIA / VARIOUS, UKRAINE / BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN
- City: VARIOUS, RUSSIA / VARIOUS, UKRAINE / BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA00A430627042022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS GRAPHIC CONTENT IN SHOTS 31, 32; THIS EDIT IS A TIMELINE OF PREVIOUS EVENTS AND CONTAINS NO NEW FOOTAGE
Russia is heading into the 100th day of its invasion of Ukraine on Saturday (June 4) with no end in sight to the fighting that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and reduced cities to rubble.
After abandoning its assault on the capital, Kyiv, Russia is pressing on in the east and south in the face of mounting sanctions and a fierce Ukrainian counter-offensive bolstered by Western arms.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, calling its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists backed by an expansionist NATO military alliance.
The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.
Western countries have since imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia's corporate and financial system, sparking a fight between Russia and several European countries it supplies with natural gas.
Addressing massed ranks of service personnel on Red Square on the 77th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, on May 9, Putin exhorted Russians to battle, but was silent about plans for any escalation in Ukraine. He condemned what he called external threats to weaken and split Russia, and repeated that NATO was creating threats right next to its borders.
After weeks of fighting, the last of the Ukrainian fighters holding out at Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks, surrendered to Russian forces on May 20th, Russia's defence ministry said. The southeastern port of Mariupol, is seen as vital to Russian attempts to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014.
On May 28th, Ukraine said its forces may need to retreat from their last pocket of resistance in Luhansk to avoid being captured by Russian troops pressing a rapid advance in the east that has shifted the momentum of the war.
Ukrainian forces endured heavy artillery barrages on May 29 as they held off Russian attempts to capture Sievierodonetsk, the largest city Kyiv still controls in the Luhansk region of the Donbas, Ukrainian officials said.
The battle for Sievierodonetsk, which lies on the eastern bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, is in the spotlight as Russia ekes out slow but solid gains in the Donbas, comprising of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Having failed to take the capital Kyiv in the early phase of the war, Russia is seeking to consolidate its grip on the Donbas, large parts of which are already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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