(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that he had visited the Sumy region, bordering Russia, and had met soldiers participating, on the other side of the border, in the offensive carried out since August in the Kursk region of Russia.
Posted at 6:42 a.m.
Updated at 12:16 p.m.
“Today I began my trip to the Sumy region with a meeting with our soldiers-the guys who are fighting in the Kursk region to defend our border regions and the whole country,” M. wrote on Telegram. Zelensky, who has visited the front several times since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
“In a long war, it’s not just about motivating the troops. We need to motivate the whole world and convince (them) that the Ukrainians can be stronger than the enemy,” the soldiers said, according to a video.
The Ukrainian president met with the soldiers of the 82e airborne assault brigade, engaged in the offensive carried out on Russian territory, and listened to the report of the commander of this unit.
Mr. Zelensky decorated soldiers, accompanied by army commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky, in an underground shelter.
He had already visited this region of northeastern Ukraine in August, after the launch on August 6 of Ukraine’s offensive, which took the Russian army from the rear by seizing several hundreds of square kilometers.
This offensive, which aimed to force Russia to redeploy in this area troops engaged in the fighting further south in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, however failed to relieve the front, and the Russian army continued to advance in this area. area.
Oil depot hit
Les autorités ukrainiennes ont affirmé vendredi avoir frappé à l’aide de drones un dépôt pétrolier dans la région frontalière russe de Voronej, un type d’attaque qui se multiplie pour tenter de perturber la logistique de l’armée russe qui envahit son voisin depuis 2022.
« Les forces de défense ukrainiennes ont touché […] at least one tank,” sparking a fire, the Ukrainian army general staff said in a statement.
A source within the Ukrainian security services (SBU) told AFP that a site with 20 fuel and lubricant tanks was hit during this attack.
“The enemy’s air defenses were active, but without success,” assured this source, who reported a “massive fire” on site.
Russian emergency services, for their part, reported a fire which broke out over more than 2,000 square meters in a warehouse storing hydrocarbon products in the Voronezh region.
The governor of this region, Alexander Gusev, said on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone hit an empty tank and that a small fire broke out before being quickly extinguished.
Almost every night, Russia and Ukraine launch dozens of drones to try to reach targets behind enemy lines, in particular to disrupt the logistics of the armed forces.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant manager killed in attack
PHOTO ALINA SMUTKO, RARCHIVES EUTERS
Zaporozhye nuclear power plant
A manager of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in southern Ukraine, was killed in a car bomb attack, the two countries announced on Friday.
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian secret services have been behind several assassinations or attempted assassinations in the occupied territories or in Russia itself, targeting those responsible for the occupation, soldiers or figures supporting the invasion of Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), the explosion of a car bomb killed Friday morning Andriï Korotky, identified as the “security manager” of the Zaporizhia power plant, the largest in Europe.
The GUR accused him of having “voluntarily cooperated with the Russian invaders” and of having denounced “pro-Ukrainian” employees of the plant, thus participating in the “repression” of the personnel by the occupier.
GUR posted a low-quality video showing a white SUV driving slowly before exploding, spreading debris around.
Authorities at the Zaporizhzhia plant, affiliated with Russia, confirmed that Mr. Korotky had been killed in a “terrorist attack committed by the Kyiv regime.”
The director of the plant, Yuri Tchernitchouk, denounced an “irresponsible” attack.
He said that Mr. Korotky was also the former president of the local council of Energodar, a Ukrainian town controlled by Russia where the nuclear power plant is located.
Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia power plant since March 2022, which has been the target of numerous bombings of which both camps accuse each other.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said in early September that he was worried about the security of the site, after the fire in a cooling tower that Moscow blamed on an attack by Ukrainian drones.
