Zelensky claims Ukraine is inflicting "biggest blow to the Russian army in decades".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Ukrainian forces are inflicting the “biggest blow to Russia’s army in decades.”
In a Facebook video address Saturday Zelensky said 31 Russian tactical battalion groups have lost capability, and more than 360 Russian tanks have been lost.
Zelensky added that groups of Russian troops were surrendering to Ukrainian forces, but that Russia is now recruiting fighters, reservists, conscripts, and mercenaries to “outnumber” Ukrainian forces.
They are using terror to break us, to break our faith in Ukraine’s victory, I am confident they will not succeed,” Zelensky added.
Addressing the city of Mariupol, Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces will guarantee a ceasefire along the evacuation corridor out of the city to allow supplies into the city, and to facilitate civilian evacuations.
Zelensky's remarks come after a Russian airstrike on Mariupol's maternity and children's hospital on Wednesday left 17 people injured, including children, women and doctors, according to Mariupol city officials. Three people died, the city council said Thursday, among them, a child.
A pregnant woman, Mariana Vishegirskaya, whose rescue from the Mariupol maternity hospital this week was captured in a viral AP photo, has since given birth to a baby girl, her family confirmed to CNN.
CNN's Tim Lister, Laura Smith-Spark, Olga Voitovych, Rob Picheta and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed reporting to this post.
Flying on Russian planes is about to get much more dangerous
From CNN's Chris Isidore
As Russia's economy gets pummeled by increasingly severe western sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, the country's crucial airlines have been essentially cut off from much of the world.
But that is the least of the industry's problems. Russia's domestic airline industry could soon become a mere shell of its former self due to restrictions on its operations.
Sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union mean that the world's two major aircraft makers, Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSF), can no longer supply spare parts or maintenance support for Russian airlines. The same is true of jet engine makers.
"Within a year Russia will cease to have any kind of viable airline industry," said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory.
He said the country's airline industry could soon find itself somewhere between the heavily sanctioned industries in Iran and North Korea.
That poses a serious problem for Russia's overall economic activity.
Russia is the world's largest nation by landmass, more than twice the size of the continental United States. It needs to have a viable airline industry to keep its economy working, said Charles Lichfield, the deputy director of GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council, an international think tank.
"It is an important part of Russia's economy. They need that backbone. They need some basic domestic [airline] industry to remain in place," Lichfield added.
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