Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the front line near the toughest clashes between his country’s troops and Russian forces in the east, where a regional official said the situation had worsened for the Ukrainian side.
Zelenskiy visited the besieged city of Lysychansk on Sunday, a few kilometers south of Sievierodonetsk, the main battlefield in the east where Russia has concentrated its forces.
Ukrainian forces had suffered a slight reversal of their fortunes after recovering half of Sievierodonetsk, Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province where the city is located, told national television.
Haidai did not go into details, but said Ukrainian troops still maintained their positions in the city’s industrial zone. “The fiercest fighting is in Sievierodonetsk. Right now there are fast fights,” he said.
Fighting for Russian forces was boosted on Sunday when the UK government said it would supply long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat on Sunday to bomb new targets if similar US weapons. were delivered to Kyiv.
Zelensky also visited the city of Soledar, Donbas, on a rare outing of the Ukrainian president outside the capital Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, which could be his closest so far to the front line. .
“I went with the head of [my] office in the east. We were in Lysychansk and Soledar, “Zelenskiy told his nightly video address, adding that he would not delve into the visit.
In two separate videos released later, Zelenskiy was shown talking to troops in closed bunker-like structures, handing out some prizes and addressing others.
“What you deserve is victory, that’s the most important thing. But not at any cost,” Zelenskiy said in one of the videos.
Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk are located in the Lugansk region and Soledar is located in the Donetsk region. Both regions make up the wider Donbas region, the industrial center of Ukraine, which Russia claims has a mission to “liberate.”
Earlier Sunday, Zelenskii said he had also visited front-line troops in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, whose governor says 60 percent of the region is under Russian occupation.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy signs the arm of a follower in Zaporizhzhia in images published on Sunday. Photo: Presidential Press Service of Ukraine / Reuters
The UK will send a handful of M270 multi-launch rocket tracking systems, which can hit targets at a distance of up to 50 miles (80 km), in the hope that they could disrupt the concentrated Russian artillery that has been hitting cities in eastern Ukraine.
Spain is also increasing its support for Ukraine, according to government sources quoted by El País newspaper. Spain will supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and Leopard battle tanks along with training for the team. Spain had previously sent only ammunition, personal protective equipment and small arms to Ukraine.
Additional military support for Ukraine came after NATO began nearly two weeks of U.S.-led naval exercises in the Baltic Sea on Sunday.
More than 7,000 sailors, aviators and sailors from 16 nations will take part, including two aspiring to join the military alliance, Finland and Sweden, in the annual Baltops (Baltic operations) exercise which has been running since 1972.
NATO said that with the participation of Sweden and Finland, it was “seizing the opportunity in an unpredictable world to improve its resilience and joint strength.”
The American warship Kearsarge docked in Stockholm. Photography: Jonas Gratzer / Getty Images
Finland and Sweden have a long history of non-military alignment before their governments decided to apply to join NATO in May, a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In recent years, Moscow has repeatedly warned Helsinki and Stockholm not to join the Western military alliance and warned of retaliation if they did.
“It is important for us, the United States and other NATO countries to show solidarity with Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” US General Mark Milley, President of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Saturday. an on-board press conference. the large amphibious warship USS Kearsarge, which was moored in central Stockholm.
Speaking to Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Milley stressed that the Baltic was a strategically important body of water and “one of the world’s major seaways.”
He said that from Moscow’s point of view, the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO would be “very problematic” and would leave Russia in a difficult military position, as the Baltic coast would be almost completely surrounded by members of the NATO. NATO, except for the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad and the Russian city of St. Petersburg and its environs.
As close partners of NATO, Finland and Sweden have been involved in the naval exercise since the mid-1990s. This year’s Baltops exercise is scheduled to end in the German port of Kiel on June 17.
Reuters contributed to this report