Zelensky visits troops defending front line in Ukraine’s east

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops at a front-line position near the embattled city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

In videos shared on social media on Saturday, Zelensky is seen awarding medals to soldiers and holding a briefing at a command post.

Zelenskyy later travelled to the Kharkiv region for another troop visit and a meeting with the military leadership.

Pokrovsk has been a target of Russian attacks since the middle of 2024. While some Russian forces have advanced to positions south-west of the city, they have recently failed to make further territorial gains.

Shortly after information on Zelensky’s visit was released, at least three civilians were killed by Russian shelling in Pokrovsk.

Another person was injured, the regional governor Vadym Filashkin wrote on Telegram. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the shelling took place in the early afternoon and hit a residential neighbourhood.

The complete capture of Donetsk remains one of Russia’s primary military objectives in its full-scale invasion, now in its fourth year.

In September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya — although Russian forces only partially control those areas. Russia had previously annexed Crimea in 2014.

At a recent meeting with business leaders, Putin reportedly warned that Moscow could lay claim to additional Ukrainian territories.

It is not clear when exactly Zelensky made his visits to the east. The trip came ahead of Monday’s ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia. US negotiators will meet separately with Ukrainian and Russian delegations.