KYIV, June 04(ABC): Ukraine s president vowed victory Friday even as Russian troops pounded the east, and the United Nations pushed to get tens of millions of tons of grain out of the country and avert a global food crisis.
More than 100 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24, thousands of people have been killed, millions sent fleeing and towns turned into rubble.
The advance of Russian troops has been slowed by a fierce Ukrainian resistance which repelled them from around the capital and forced Moscow to shift its aims towards capturing the east.
“Victory will be ours,” Zelensky said in a video speech.
Later, in his nightly address, he dismissed the Russian army.
“At first it looked threatening. Then dangerous… And now probably just a bitter smile. Because what s left of it? … War crimes, shame and hatred,” he said.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “certain results have been achieved”, pointing to the “liberation” of some areas from what he called the “pro-Nazi armed forces of Ukraine”.
The West has sent ever more potent weapons to Ukraine and piled on ever more stringent sanctions, with the European Union on Friday formally adopting a ban on most Russian oil imports.
Putin s alleged girlfriend, former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, was also added to an assets freeze and visa-ban blacklist.
At the same time, the United Nations said it was leading intense negotiations with Russia to allow Ukraine s grain harvest to leave the country.
– No problem to export grain –
“I am optimistic that something could give in,” said Amin Awad, the UN crisis coordinator for Ukraine, voicing hope for a “breakthrough.”
Putin in a televised interview late Friday said there was “no problem” to export grain from Ukraine, via Kyiv- or Moscow-controlled ports or even through central Europe.
He said this could be done from the Russian-controlled ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk, or the Ukrainian-held port of Odessa, as long as Ukraine “cleared” the waters around it of mines.
Russian troops now occupy a fifth of Ukraine s territory and Moscow has imposed a blockade on its Black Sea ports.
