Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops at the front in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, home to Ukraine’s second largest city, in his first official appearance outside Kyiv since beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.
Key points:
- The president handed out compliments and gifts to the soldiers
- Its chief of staff says 31% of the Kharkiv region is occupied by Russian forces
- Authorities say Russian forces have destroyed more than 2,100 apartment blocks in the region
“You risk your lives for all of us and for our country,” the president’s office website told the soldiers, adding that he handed out compliments and gifts.
“I am infinitely proud of our defenders,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.
“Every day, risking their lives, they fight for the freedom of Ukraine.”
Mr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote in the Telegram application that he had visited destroyed residential areas together with Mr Zelenskyy.
They discussed the possibility of rebuilding new homes, noting that their replacements should be built with anti-aerodic shelters in place.
Yermak added that 31% of the Kharkiv region was currently occupied by Russia, and another 5% had been recaptured by Ukrainian forces.
Zelenskyy delivered praise and gifts to the fighters. (AP: Presidential Press Office of Ukraine)
According to a statement from the Zelenskyy press office, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov told the president that Russian forces had destroyed more than 2,100 apartment blocks, with parts of the northern and eastern parts of the Kharkiv regional capital especially affected.
“We have to find money and lines of credit,” Zelenskyy said.
“The state has to provide in terms of guarantees, and the cities have to find superprojects and find the money.”
The “release” of the Donbas is an “unconditional priority”
The “liberation” of the Ukrainian region of Donbas was an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories would have to decide their future on their own, the RIA news agency said on Sunday. ‘Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov.
“The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognized by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority,” Lavrov said in an interview with French television channel TF1, according to RIA.
For the rest of the territories of Ukraine, “the people must decide their future in these areas,” he said.
Ukrainian forces withstood heavy artillery attacks on Sunday as they halted Russian attempts to capture Sievierodonetsk, the largest city Ukraine still controls in the eastern Luhansk region, officials said.
Moscow is concentrating its forces in an attempt to take the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. (Reuters: Serhii Nuzhnenko)
Russian bombing has destroyed all of Sievierodonetsk’s critical infrastructure, Zelenskyy said, adding that Moscow’s main goal right now was to take the city.
“About 90 percent of the buildings are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no telecommunications. There is constant bombardment,” he said in a televised speech.
“Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a key task for the occupiers … We are doing our best to maintain this progress,” he added.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to search, up and down arrows for volume. Clock time: 1 minute 59 seconds 1m 59s Ukraine demands more weapons from the West while Russia gains ground in the Donbass.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has urged the West to equip it with more powerful weapons to turn the tide of war, now in its fourth month.
Analysts at the Washington Institute for War Study said the Russians had not yet managed to encircle Sievierodonetsk and that Ukrainian defenders had inflicted “fearsome casualties” on them.
Ukrainians were suffering heavy casualties, both civilians and combatants, an information document said.
Residents with broken hearts are struggling to rebuild
Residents take their belongings from a building destroyed by Russian bombing. (AP: Efrem Lukatsky)
Two million residents used to live in the Kyiv region before the war. Half of them are believed to have fled their homes amid the fighting.
With their towns and villages back under Ukrainian control, some of the displaced have now returned, but many have returned to find their homes badly damaged or even destroyed.
Olga Chernenko’s house in the city of Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, caught fire.
He gave a team of journalists a tour of the remains of the building where he lived most of his life.
“It’s painful for me,” Ms. Chernenko said.
“I want to see my house again.”
With nowhere else to live, she has found temporary shelter with friends, but does not know how to rebuild her home.
“I just hope the government helps us,” he said.
Olga Chernenko holds her dog Casper at the entrance to her house, which has been ruined by attacks.
Local authorities, however, say they do not have the funding to repair enough private homes to house those homeless.
Some 26,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in the region during heavy fighting in February and March, according to Governor Oleksii Kuleba.
Read more about the Russian invasion of Ukraine:
Although his team is still calculating the cost of the conflict in the region, it has begun rebuilding bridges and other major infrastructure, as well as some private housing.
The government has allocated 1 billion hryvnia ($ 47 million) in funding to four regions where the active struggle is over.
The Kyiv region received more than a third of the package, but Kuleba said it would not be enough to solve the problem because there was “too much destruction.”
Authorities say Russian forces have destroyed more than 2,100 apartment blocks. (AP: Natacha Pisarenko)
He said the region probably needed 600 million hryvnia ($ 28.2 million) more for small repairs and then another 1 billion hryvnia to rebuild homes.
Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia be held financially responsible for the damage its forces are inflicting on Ukraine.
He suggested the creation of a legal mechanism through which anyone suffering from Russia’s actions could receive compensation.
ABC / children
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Posted 1 hour 1 hour ago on dig. May 29, 2022 at 8:47 PM, updated 38 minutes ago 38 minutes ago dig. May 29, 2022 at 9:23 p.m.