KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene of some of the most intense combat since Russia invaded the country, meeting Tuesday with troops and praising their “courage, resilience and strength” as artillery boomed in the background.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also hailed the “courage and self-denial” of his forces in Ukraine — but he did so at a ceremony in an opulent and glittering hall at the Kremlin.
Both leaders sought to build morale as the stalemated conflict grinds through its 10th month and winter sets in.
Zelenskky met with military personnel in a dimly lit building — possibly a disused factory — in Bakhmut, which he has called “the hottest spot on the entire front line,” his office said. The city, about 380 miles east of Kyiv, has remained in Ukrainian hands, thwarting Moscow’s goal of capturing the rest of Donetsk province and the entire Donbas industrial region.
It was not clear how he got to Bakhmut, but his unannounced trip appeared designed to dishearten the Russians trying to surround the city.
“Bakhmut Fortress. Our people. Unconquered by the enemy. Who with their bravery prove that we will endure and will not give up what’s ours,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
“Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes by and Bakhmut is already breaking not only the Russian army, but also the Russian mercenaries who came to replace the wasted army of the occupiers,” he said.
Russia’s invasion, which began Feb. 24, has lost momentum in recent months. The annexed provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia remain fiercely contested. Capturing Bakhmut would sever Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward cities that are key Ukrainian strongholds in the province.
Mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military contractor, are reported to be leading the charge in Bakhmut. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Russia-backed separatists had controlled parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk since 2014. The two provinces together make up the Donbas.
At the Kremlin ceremony on the holiday honoring Russia’s military and security agencies, Putin presented awards to the Moscow-appointed heads of four regions of Ukraine that Russia illegally annexed in September.
“Our country has often faced challenges and defended its sovereignty,” Putin said. “Now Russia is again facing such challenge. Soldiers, officers and volunteers are showing outstanding examples of courage and self-denial on the front line.”
In a video address by Putin released before Tuesday’s ceremony, he praised the security personnel deployed to the four regions, saying that “people living there, Russian citizens, count on being protected by you.”
“Your duty is to do all that is needed to ensure their safety and protection of rights and freedoms,” the former KGB operative said. He promised to reinforce units there with more equipment and personnel. The regions are under pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Putin also called on counterintelligence officers to step up efforts to “derail activities by foreign spy agencies and quickly track down traitors, spies and saboteurs.”
British authorities, meanwhile, gave a bleak assessment of how the war is going for Russia.
