“Everyone needs to understand that putin has not conquered 70% of Donbas in 3 years — that’s a manipulation. Since the start of the full-scale war, in almost 4 years they (the russians - ed.) have captured about 30% of the Donetsk oblast. Not the whole of Donbas. We currently control 32%. That means a third was taken by him (putin - ed.) 10 years ago. During the years of full-scale war, he has taken only 30%. That’s a lot, yes, but he has lost a million people. That’s the price. And it’s almost 4 years. So if he says that in 3-4 months… and that’s exactly what he told the Americans, the White House, representative Vitkoff — that he would take Donbas by the end of the year — he won’t take it. The price is years and a million people. And if not years, but faster, then simply more people. Not a million, but 2-3 million corpses. That’s the price”, - said President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with ABC.
According to the president, Donbas is a fortified territory.
“If he comes out and takes all of Donbas, who can guarantee us that he won’t go 90 km further to Kharkiv? Where 1.5 million people live. He has always wanted Kharkiv, it’s been like that for all 11 years. It’s on the border with russia, he will want to occupy it… And that also opens the way to Dnipro — Ukraine’s industrial center. That’s our economy, our factories, our production, a serious contribution to the GDP of the state”, - Zelensky stressed.