Forces advancing ‘in all directions’; ‘This is a happy day’_ Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited Ukrainian forces fighting on the front line that runs through the eastern Donetsk region and the south of the country, decorating troops on a day in which he said his forces had “advanced in all directions”.

In an upbeat message to his nation after visiting the front lines, Zelenskyy said: “This is a happy day. I wished the guys more days like this.”

“It was a busy day, a lot of emotions… I was honoured to award our warriors, to thank them personally, to shake their hands,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, which was released in the early hours of Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president also said he had spoken about weapons supplies with United States President Joe Biden.

“Today, I was in the area where these weapons will give more power, more protection to Ukrainians’ lives. And bring our victory closer, this is the main thing. All our land will be free – all of it,” he said.

The president’s office posted four videos of Zelenskyy’s journey on Monday, which he said covered “hundreds of kilometres” and appeared to present encounters with his troops in at least three locations on the front lines.

The Ukrainian leader’s interactions with his forces and positive comments on Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive contrasted starkly with the turmoil in Russia following the short-lived weekend mutiny by the Russian Wagner Group’s mercenary forces.

One location visited by Zelenskyy was in the eastern Donetsk region, which has been a focal point of fighting in the 16-month-old war. Another was located in what was described as the Berdyansk sector in the south of the country – in areas where Ukrainian forces have captured villages. A third location was also on the southern front, further to the west.

“I have the honour to be here today, talk to the commander and first of all thank you, thank you for protecting our country, sovereignty, our families, children, Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in the video.

A second video showed Zelenskyy at a fuel station where he had coffee with soldiers. Dressed in his trademark military khaki T-shirt, he stood alongside troops in a queue at a counter and posed for photos with the soldiers and women working there.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had intensified their assaults around Bakhmut city and had made advances around the northern and southern parts of the city.

There was also little evidence that Russia had the ground force reserves required to “reinforce against” the many threats now posed by Ukraine “in widely separated sectors, from Bakhmut to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, over 200km [124 miles] away”, the ministry said in an intelligence update.