Zelensky visits southern front as fighting rages in Donbass east

World

Published: 2022-06-18 21:10

Last Updated: 2024-03-25 18:15


Zelensky visits southern front as fighting rages in Donbass east
Zelensky visits southern front as fighting rages in Donbass east

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the southern city of Mykolaiv on Saturday, as fierce battles raged near Severodonetsk in the eastern Donbass.

In a rare move outside Kyiv, where he resides for security reasons, Zelensky went to the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv and visited troops nearby and in the neighboring Odessa region.

Russian forces have focused their efforts in eastern and southern Ukraine in recent weeks after their failed attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, following the start of the operation on February 24.

Addressing the units deployed in Odessa, Zelensky said, "The important thing is that you are alive. As long as you are alive, there will remain a solid Ukrainian wall that protects our country."

"I would like to thank you on behalf of the Ukrainian people and on behalf of our state for the wonderful work you are doing and for your excellent service," he added.

Mykolaiv is a major target for Russia because it is located on the road to the strategic city of Odessa on the Black Sea, about 100 km northwest of Kherson, which fell to Russia in the first weeks of the war.

Zelensky inspected the badly damaged regional administration building in Mykolaiv and met officials in what appeared to be a basement where fighters were honored, according to a video released by his office.

- 'Leave everything and go' -

The repercussions of the war in Ukraine continue to affect the rest of the world, and Russia is held responsible for the disruption in the export of Ukrainian grain, threatening a food crisis.

Zelensky appealed to the West to give his country weapons to confront Russian forces, and got political support on Friday when the European Commission announced its support for granting his country the status of a candidate for membership in the European Union.

In his Friday evening speech, Zelensky praised the commission's announcement, saying it would be a "historic achievement."

It may take years to obtain full membership, but the first step is for the EU countries to agree at their summit next week to grant Ukraine candidate country status.

Leaders of the bloc's largest countries, France, Germany and Italy, announced their support for the move during a visit to Kiev this week, even as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country.

The Donbass industrial region in the east of the country is still witnessing the bloodiest battles, and battles are taking place in villages near the city of Severodonetsk, which Russia has been trying to control for weeks.

"Now, the fiercest battles are taking place near Severodonetsk," the governor of the eastern Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai, said on the Telegram app.

"In the neighboring villages, the battles are very difficult, in Tochkivska and Zolote. They try to advance but fail," he added. "Our defenders are fighting the Russians in all directions," he added.

Gaidai also stated that Lysichansk, a Ukrainian-controlled city separated from the Severodonetsk river, was being "heavily bombed". He stressed that the Russians "couldn't get close to it, so they only did air strikes on the city."

Lysekhansk residents prepare for evacuation. "We leave everything and go. No one can survive such blows," said Alla Bor, a history professor.

Pro-Russian officials in the separatist-held city of Donetsk said five civilians were killed and 12 wounded in Ukrainian shelling on Saturday.

- 'They want to defend their country' -

Moscow warned against outside interference in its ex-Soviet neighbor, saying its invasion was aimed at "de-Nazification and disarmament" of a country that was getting too close to the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he had "nothing against" Ukraine joining an economic union like the European Union, which does not pose a security risk like joining NATO.

But he considered that EU membership would turn Ukraine into a "semi-colony" of the West.

Putin also stressed that the Russian invasion was not the cause of global inflation and grain shortages, and attributed economic difficulties to Western sanctions, which he said threaten starvation "primarily in the poorest countries."

Russian state television broadcast videos on Friday of two former US soldiers who went missing last week while fighting alongside the Ukrainian army, announcing that Russian forces had captured them.

US President Joe Biden said Friday that he did not know the whereabouts of Alexander Druk and Andy Hoyn, after their relatives lost contact with them. The US State Department also reported the loss of a third American.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians continue to volunteer to fight, and military exercises were held Friday at fortified positions left by Russian forces in the town of Bucha, which has seen possible war crimes attributed to Russian forces.

"Most of those here are not soldiers, they are civilians who want to defend their country, half of them did not carry weapons before today," a military official with the nickname "Ticha" told AFP.

In Mykolaiv, soldiers are trying to maintain the routine they followed before the war, and one of them said that he would not give up his vegetarian diet even on the front line.

Oleksandr Chauhan explained that he received a supply from a network of volunteers to maintain his vegetarian diet.

"There was vegan sausage, hummus and soy milk...and it's all for free," the 37-year-old theater professor added happily.