Donetsk battles are ‘hell’, says Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops had destroyed key infrastructure in the southern Ukraine city of Kherson before fleeing, and vowed to deepen economic, political and trade ties with his Russian and Iranian counterparts.
Zelensky described hellish fighting in an area east of Donetsk, where pro-Russian forces fought harder on Friday after abandoning the only regional capital occupied by Russia since the war began.
Kherson’s jubilant residents welcomed the arriving troops, but Zelensky said authorities had cleared some 2,000 mines, tripwires and unexploded ordnance left by the departing Russians to stabilize the region.
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“Russians everywhere have the same goal: to humiliate people as much as possible. But we will undo everything,” Zelensky said in a video speech on Saturday.
“Before fleeing Kherson, the occupiers destroyed all vital infrastructure such as communications, water, heat and electricity.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian successes in Kherson and elsewhere, where Ukrainian forces now control more than 60 regional settlements, were partly due to resistance in the Donetsk region despite repeated Russian attacks. benefited from
“It’s just hell out there. There are fierce battles going on every day,” he said. “But our troops are defending valiantly. They have withstood the terrible pressure of the invaders and defended their perimeter.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi called in a phone call to “further strengthen cooperation in the political, trade and economic fields, including in the transport and logistics sector,” the Kremlin said on Saturday. rice field.
Russia is stepping up efforts to build ties with war-torn Iran and other non-Western countries, a senior Russian official told Iranian leaders who met in Tehran on Wednesday.
After the visit, Ukraine and Western countries accused Russia of using Iranian drones to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Iran says it sent several drones to Russia before the war started. Last month, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles.
However, Ukraine will decide the timing and content of a dialogue framework with Russia, according to documents from Saturday’s meeting in Phnom Penh between Secretary of State Antony Brinken and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
The Washington Post suggested a week ago that the Biden administration told Ukrainian leaders that they were open to negotiations with Russia and would refuse to participate in peace talks until Putin is ousted from power. It was reported that he was personally encouraged to do so.
Moscow has called the crackdown in Ukraine a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing and “disrupting” its small neighbor. Kyiv and its allies say the Russian aggression, which has killed thousands and displaced millions, is unprovocative and illegal.
Donetsk battles are ‘hell’, says Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
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