100 days into Russia's invasion, Zelensky warns that war now faces 'inflection point'

This Friday marks 100 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his illegal invasion of Ukraine – and while Kyiv has rallied its troops to fight to maintain control of its eastern regions, President Zelensky warned that 20% of the country presently remains occupied.

Yet as the days go on, Zelensky’s message to Western leaders has remained the same: Ukraine needs more weapons now lest the war takes a turn for the worse.

"It's already running late," said Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region said in an interview on Thursday.

"Our Western partners are helping us, but the quantity of weapons and ammunition that they are providing are not enough," he added.

In an address to Luxembourg’s parliament on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia is currently occupying upwards of 20% of Ukraine’s national territory.

Addressing the lawmakers, Zelensky said that nearly 48,260 sq miles is currently under Russian control – including Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine that Russian separatists took in 2014, the BBC reported.

"We have to defend ourselves against almost the entire Russian army. All combat-ready Russian military formations are involved in this aggression," he warned, adding that the front line extends for more than 620 miles.

While meeting with Western officials in Bratislava, Zelensky warned that the war now faces an “inflection point” and could fail if Western governments fail to provide adequate support.

Although the White House pledged this week to provide Kyiv with $700 million of weapons, including advanced rocket systems, the announcement was met with skepticism by Ukrainian officials.

Referring to the advanced rocket systems being promised by the United States, Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official at the Friends of Europe think-tank in Brussels, said that Western nations waited to long to arm Ukraine.

"My sense is that the West made a big mistake. Six weeks ago, when the Russians were in retreat ... That's when the Americans should have given Ukrainians HIMARS," Shea said.

While Russian forces are advancing slowly in the east – covering 500-1,000 meters per day – they have been systematically leveling their targets as they push forward. After all, the Russian military has so far lost over 40,000 troops during the conflict and have been forced to rely on deadly artillery in its advance.

According to one Western official, Russia’s ground forces are now at a mere 50% of full capacity in terms of effectiveness.

"Provided that Ukraine consistently receive the types of weapons that it has requested ... and that it will be expanded and increased ... this could potentially make it possible to halt Russia on all sectors of the front and will create conditions for counter-attacks" by August or September, said Oleksandr Musiyenko of Ukraine's Center for Military and Legal Studies.

For now, however, Ukraine must sit and wait for aid to arrive -- but as more buildings are leveled by Russian bombs, so too goes morale.