President Volodymyr Zelensky has paid a visit to Ukrainian troops on the frontlines in Donbas, bringing himself within easy range of Russian artillery to award bravery medals in the midst of a major counter-attack in the region.
On Sunday, Zelensky was videotaped shaking hands with soldiers and discussing the situation with his commanders inside bunkers in Lysychansk and Bakhmut, just a few hundred yards from the frontline.
‘I want to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting all of us, our state. I am grateful to everyone,’ he told them. ‘Take care of yourselves!’
It is not Zelensky’s first trip to the front or outside of Kyiv – he visited Kharkiv last month while fighting was still going on north of the city – but this latest trip brings him closer to the frontline than ever before.
It also comes amid intense combat along the front, with Ukrainian forces conducting a surprise counter-attack in the city of Severodonetsk over the weekend, forcing back Russian troops who appeared to be on the point of taking it.
In a Sunday report, Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk region, where Severodonetsk is located, declared that Ukraine currently controls more than half of the city, while analysts at the Institute for the Study of War placed the proportion at 70%.
It’s a dramatic change from late last week, when Russia controlled 80% of the city and Haidai said he’d be willing to order Ukraine’s forces to retreat if Kyiv gave the order.
It also raises new concerns about Putin’s ability to fulfill even his most modest of war goals, the capture of Donbas, after failing horribly in a daring early attempt to seize Kyiv, and what will happen to him if defeat becomes certain.
Ukraine is now fighting back on almost every front, seizing more territory to the north of Kharkiv over the weekend and trading territory with Russia to the west of Kherson in a series of punches and counter-punches.
Although no side has emerged as the dominant force, time is on Ukraine’s side as more reinforcements and Western weapons arrive at the front to bolster its forces, while Russia’s invasion force is dwindling as men and equipment are destroyed in combat.
Zelensky also stated that he traveled to Zaporizhzhia in the southeast to meet with Mariupol residents who had managed to flee the port city before it fell to Russia.
‘Every family has a unique narrative. ‘Most of them were menless,’ he claimed.
‘Someone’s husband went to war, someone’s is imprisoned, and someone, sadly, died.
‘A tragedy. No home, no loved one. But we must live for the children. True heroes – they are among us.’
Former Australian army general Mick Ryan said Zelensky’s journey to the battlefield provided him with a vital firsthand perspective of military operations and boosted morale among his frontline troops.
It also exhibited ‘his complete trust in his soldiers,’ highlighting the gap between his leadership style and that of his Russian opponent Vladimir Putin.
‘An important characteristic demonstrated by Zelensky is his willingness to take personal risk to visit soldiers in the field, and get his own sense of how military operations are unfolding,’ Ryan tweeted Monday.
‘This is an important way that Zelensky differentiates himself from his adversary.
‘I am pretty sure that Putin will not be accepting invitations to visit the poorly fed and led – but well armed – Russian troops in Ukraine at any point in the near future.’
Zelensky previously visited the frontlines at the end of May, but there is no evidence that Putin has gone anywhere near the battlefield since his invasion began.
On Sunday, Russia launched its first missile strikes on Kyiv since April 28.
‘High-precision, long-range missiles fired by the Russian Aerospace Forces on the outskirts of Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by eastern European countries and other armoured vehicles that were in hangars,’ a Russian defence ministry spokesman said.
One person was injured, and AFP correspondents witnessed numerous buildings with blown-out windows near one of the targeted sites.
Ukraine has requested for increasingly more powerful weapons to repel Russia’s invasion, and its deputy defense minister reiterated on Sunday that this backing would be required until Moscow was destroyed.
The US said last week that it would give Ukraine with advanced missile systems, the latest in a long line of weapons sent or pledged to the pro-Western country.
However, Putin stated that long-range missile sales to Ukraine meant that “we will make the proper conclusions and utilize our weaponry… to strike locations we haven’t hit before.”
Unveiling the latest UK contribution, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace emphasized that Ukraine’s Western allies sustain their arms delivery in order for it to win.
The UK Ministry of Defence stated that London had worked closely with Washington on the gift of the multiple-launch rocket systems, or MLRS.
The M270 launchers, which can hit targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) distant with precision-guided rockets, will ‘provide a major boost in capacity for Ukrainian troops,’ according to the ministry.
Western powers have imposed increasingly severe sanctions on Russia, but disagreements have grown about how to proceed, particularly whether to engage in discussion with Russia.
Pope Francis, speaking from the apostolic residence in St Peter’s Square, renewed appeals for “serious discussions” to cease the war’s “increasingly hazardous escalation.”
According to Kiev, Russian forces now occupy one-fifth of Ukraine’s land, and Moscow has put a blockade on its Black Sea ports, raising worries of a global food crisis.
Ukraine and Russia are two of the world’s leading wheat exporters.
The UN claimed it was negotiating with Russia to allow Ukraine’s grain crop to leave the country.