Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky visited the front line of battle in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, the Presidency announced.
The head of state “visited front-line positions in the Vugledar-Marinka defense zone”, where fighting has been going on for months with the Russian army, the Presidency said in a statement, in which it released photos of the president with soldiers.
The main reason for the president’s visit to his troops at the front was to congratulate the Ukrainian sailors who are celebrating their day in Ukraine today, according to a statement published on the official account of the head of state on Telegram.
The Ukrainian presidential office later reported that the president had visited his soldiers in the frontline area near Vugledar and Mariinka in the eastern Donetsk province.
“Our defenders. The front. Today I am here to congratulate our fighters on the Day of Ukrainian Seamen,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Glory to all who defend Ukraine!” he added.
The note is accompanied by numerous photos in which the president poses with or greets soldiers. Most of the soldiers who appear in the images wear the blue beret that identifies Ukrainian sailors.
“Every day on the battlefield, Ukrainian sailors prove to be a powerful force that destroys the enemy, liberates Ukrainian land and carries out the most difficult tasks in the most difficult conditions,” Zelensky was quoted as saying in the office statement. presidential.
During his visit, the Ukrainian head of state also decorated some of the soldiers deployed in the area for “the courage and heroism” shown in “the defense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” on the battlefield.
The president also announced the creation of a “Marine Corps” that will “significantly increase the potential” of this component of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
This comes after the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, lashed out at the Russian army on Monday for an alleged attack in Russia’s Belgorod region, stating that “today the special military operation has become an all-out war.”
“There is a de facto war. Today the “special (military) operation” has turned into an all-out war. It is not the first time that there have been explosions and deaths in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions,” Prigozhin said.
Then, Wagner’s chief, a close ally of Putin and who maintains a power dispute with the Russian military high command, charged again against the Russian army, which he accused of “doing nothing” to reinforce the Russian borders.
“As far as I know, the Russian army does nothing to reinforce our borders in the directions from which the Ukrainian army can enter. It (the Ministry) must do it, it is their direct responsibility. They are not the Ministry of Crime, so they cannot commit crimes, but the Ministry of Defense, so they are obliged to defend the country, ”he said.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region declared on Monday that a Ukrainian “sabotage group” had entered Russian territory in the Graivoron district, bordering Ukraine, and was being repelled by Russian forces.
(With information from EFE)