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Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to the Southern Front
Photo: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / via REUTERS
For the first time since Russia's war of aggression began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the front line in southern Ukraine.
A video on his Telegram channel shows Zelensky inspecting a badly damaged regional administration building in Mykolaiv.
He took part in a meeting on important issues in the region.
»We discussed the state of the economy, the restoration of the water supply and the situation in agriculture.
Particular attention was paid to threats from land and sea, "says the description of the video.
Among other things, you can see how Zelenskyy honors the military governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitaly Kim, and the mayor Oleksandr Senkevich with medals.
Shortly after the war began, Russian troops crossed the Dnipro River near Cherson.
At the same time, neighboring Mykolayiv seemed about to fall.
But the Ukrainian troops were able to stop the Russian advance and in some cases even pushed it back.
Fighting is currently going on along the territorial borders between Kherson and Mykolayiv.
Mykolaiv is an important military target for Russian troops.
The capture of the city would open the way to Odessa, the main Ukrainian port city.
According to the Presidential Office, Zelenskyi visited other Ukrainian positions in the region and in the neighboring Odessa region.
"I want to thank you on behalf of the Ukrainian people, on behalf of our state, for your great work, for your heroic service," he told soldiers.
It is not Zelenskyj's first visit to the front.
He had already visited the east of the country in the past.
He turned up in Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and in the Donbass region.
On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin has only made one public appearance with soldiers - when he visited the injured in a Moscow hospital.
svs/dpa/AFP