(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday moved closer to the frontline not far from the key battleground in eastern Ukraine, Bagmouth, where the Ukrainian army has been resisting a Russian offensive for months.
The trip comes as Russia accuses its neighbor of increasing drone strikes against airfields on its territory.
The strikes were unsolicited by Kyiv, but illustrate the difficulties faced by the invasion launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24.
Ukrainians continue to experience power outages, a day after Russian bombing of their country’s energy infrastructure.
President Volodymyr Zelensky released three videos of himself in Donbass, which Moscow claimed to annex in September, although it does not fully control.
“too hard”
“Eastern Ukraine is a very difficult axis (ahead),” said Mr. Zelensky told soldiers during Armed Forces Day. “Thank you for your resilience,” he added, before presenting decorations to some of these men.
In another video, made in front of the entrance to the city of Sloviansk, the Ukrainian head of state congratulated “all those who gave their lives for Ukraine.”
Farther away, in the pro-Russian stronghold of Donetsk, local officials said six civilians had been killed in Ukrainian attacks.
Volodymyr Zelensky often goes to the front, something the Kremlin master has never done before, preferring video conferences from his office or his home.
Vladimir Putin has only made rare trips, such as Monday’s annexation of Crimea, where he was shown driving over a bridge linking the peninsula to Russia, which was partially destroyed in early October by an attack on what Moscow said was Kiev.
The Ukrainian president was 45 kilometers from Baghmouth on Tuesday, where Russian forces have been trying to win since the summer at the cost of considerable destruction.
Moscow stationed not only soldiers there, but also Wagner, a paramilitary group that recruited criminals.
The capture of Bagmouth was finally a victory for the Russians, who had suffered setbacks since the autumn and were forced to retreat to the north-east and south.
Faced with the proliferation of these defeats, the Kremlin decided, from October, to focus on attacks on Ukrainian energy installations, losing electricity, water and even heat, winter with its negative temperatures, snow and ice.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu again on Tuesday explained the “massive strikes” as “reducing Ukraine’s military capabilities”.
While the Kremlin has continued to vow to crack down on Ukrainian resistance, the past few months have been particularly difficult for the Russian military, which has faced Ukrainians motivated and armed by their Western allies.
Mr. Putin already needs to mobilize 300,000 reservationists, so the public to reinforce his ways.
Strategic failure
Moscow has condemned Ukrainian attacks over the past two days on military airfields, including two targeted on Monday, several hundred kilometers from the border. Kiev has not officially claimed any responsibility for these actions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described them as a “dangerous factor,” adding that “necessary measures will be taken,” without giving details.
Russian newspaper Commercial Ukraine writes that it used Soviet TU-141 drones to attack, particularly on Monday, Engels’ base, which harbors strategic bombers and is 500 km from the nearest Ukrainian border.
The British Ministry of Defense assessed on Tuesday that if Kiev were to take such a step, Moscow would consider it “the most significant strategic failure to protect its forces since the invasion of Ukraine”.
Additionally, on Tuesday morning, another drone strike, this time in the Kursk airfield near the border with Ukraine, set fire to a fuel tank.
President Putin, for his part, convened his Security Council to discuss issues related to “internal security,” and Mr. Peskov said.
Finally, Kyiv and Moscow have carried out a new exchange of prisoners, the Russian Defense Ministry announced, noting in a press release that “60 Russian soldiers” were released in this context on Tuesday.
