Volodymyr Zelensky

"By the end of this year, Russia will lose 100,000 of its soldiers and God only knows how many mercenaries," Ukrayinska Pravda quoted the President as saying in his nightly video address to the nation on Wednesday. Zelensky also said that situation at the front remains difficult. "Despite extremely big Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south," he said.

In a video address on Sunday, the President said: "Russia has used more than 4,700 missiles in 270 days of the full-scale war. Hundreds of our cities are simply burned. "Thousands of people died. Hundreds of thousands were forcibly deported to Russia. Millions left Ukraine for other countries fleeing war."

In his nightly video address on Sunday, the President said: "Investigators have recorded more than 400 Russian war crimes; bodies of civilians and military personnel who had been killed are being found. "The atrocities the Russian army has left behind in Kherson Oblast (region) are the same as (atrocities committed) in other parts of our country that it was able to occupy."

Mykhailo Podolyak, one of President Zelensky's most-senior advisers, said last night that Russian troops remain in the city and that Kyiv believes reinforcements are on their way, Daily Mail reported. "Actions speak louder than words," he tweeted. "Ukraine will liberate territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements."

The strikes in the early hours of Tuesday hit Kiev, Kharkiv in the east, Mykolaiv in the south and central regions of Dnipro and Zhytomyr, where officials said hospitals were running on backup generators, Daily Mail reported. Drones bombarded Kiev on Monday, destroying a residential building in the centre and killing five people in what the presidency described as an attack of desperation.

Taking to Twitter on Monday morning, Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's staff, said: "The capital was attacked by kamikaze drones. The Russians think it will help them, but such actions are like agony. "We need more air defence systems ASAP. More weapons to defend the sky and destroy the enemy."

The resolution, which received 143 votes, with only five countries voting against it, and 35 abstaining on Wednesday at the Assembly's emergency session, passed with the required two-thirds majority showing Russia's isolation.

He made the remarks while virtually addressing G7 leaders on Tuesday during an emergency meeting over the developments in Ukraine. Addressing the bloc which consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US, the President said: "For such a new wave of terror there must be a new wave of responsibility for Russia -- new sanctions, new forms of political pressure and new forms of support for Ukraine.

Speaking through a video link at the informal meeting of the European Council, Zelensky on Friday said that the main challenge for Ukraine is the physical protection of its energy facilities from Russian strikes. Ukraine needs enough air defence systems to prevent possible attacks on its energy infrastructure, he noted.

In an interview with the BBC at the President's Office in Kiev, Zelensky said on Friday: "They begin to prepare their society. That's very dangerous. "They are not ready to do it, to use it. But they begin to communicate. They don't know whether they'll use or not use it. I think it's dangerous to even speak about it."