(Kyiv) Volodymyr Zelensky and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, met at a hydroelectric station in the Zaporizhia region, where the Ukrainian president was traveling on Monday, “in the first line” on the southern front.
“I had a rich exchange with Mr. Zelensky about protecting ‘the site’ and its employees,” Mr. Grossi wrote in a tweet, along with a photo of the two men.
The two leaders went to the site of a hydroelectric plant in Dnieper responsible for supplying the nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian army and regularly victim of power cuts.
Earlier, Mr. Zelensky had posted himself in the Zaporizhia region, “on the front line” on the southern front.
“Zaporizhya region. Front line positions. I’m honored to be here today, alongside our military,” he said on his Telegram account, accompanying his message with a video in which we see him presenting medals to soldiers.
“Thank you for protecting our state [and] all of us. Thank you for protecting our homes, our territorial integrity and life in Ukraine,” he told them according to a statement from the Ukrainian Presidency.
Last week, Volodymyr Zelensky had moved to the region of Kherson (South), partially occupied by Russia, after going near Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in the East, and in the region of Kharkiv (North -East).
On Telegram, Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “certain” of a Ukrainian victory against Russia, after more than a year of war against the Moscow army.
According to the Ukrainian presidency, Zelensky visited the command post of the operational group of troops for the Zaporizhia region on Monday.
A meeting with the military officials of the region was held there, according to the same source.
The administration of the city of Avdiivka announced Monday the evacuation of municipal employees from this locality located on the front in eastern Ukraine and regularly bombarded by Russian forces.
“Avdiivka looks more and more like a place taken from post-apocalyptic movies […] Therefore, a difficult decision was made to evacuate […] municipal workers who at least tried to maintain the cleanliness and vitality of the city,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of the local military administration, announced on social media.
He “strongly recommends” leaving the city, “because the Russian rockets and projectiles spare nothing and no one,” he added.
Russian troops have been trying for months to take Avdiivka, which has been on the frontline since 2014 and the start of the war between Ukrainian forces and Kremlin-led separatists.
Although only 13 km from Donetsk, the Russian-controlled capital of the eponymous region, the city still had 30,000 inhabitants when the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Pounded by artillery and more recently by the air force, it has only some 2,300 inhabitants, including 1,960 registered who receive humanitarian aid, Mr. Barabash had recently told AFP.
Avdiivka is currently one of the two most difficult theaters of combat on the front, with that of the city of Bakhmout, located 60 km further north.
In June, the Russians cut off one of the two main access roads to the city and positioned themselves to the east and south. In recent months, they have advanced and taken villages to the south-west and north, as if to take Avdiivka in a pincer movement, failing to be able to take it frontally.
A Russian bombardment left at least two people dead and 29 injured in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, the regional governor announced on Monday.
“There are two dead and 29 injured in Sloviansk, administrative buildings and offices were damaged along with five buildings and seven houses,” Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook, adding that Russian forces had “hit the center of the city around 10:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. EST) with two S-300 missiles”.
The governor added that another city in the Donetsk region, Druzhkivka, had been targeted by an attack. “Two S-300 missiles hit the Druzhkivka orphanage and almost completely destroyed it,” he said, adding that the strike had no casualties according to initial reports.
“Another day that started with the terrorism of the Russian Federation. The aggressor state has hit our city of Sloviansk,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
“The enemy must know: Ukraine will not forgive the torture inflicted on our people, will not forgive these deaths and injuries,” he added.
Russian forces have made capturing the Donetsk region their top military priority and announced last year that they had annexed it, although they do not control all of it.
