“I wish to thank — from right here, from this place of victory — every of our troopers for these 500 days,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “Thanks to everybody who fights for Ukraine!”
It was unclear when the video was filmed. Zelenskyy was in Turkey on Saturday.
Russian forces took management of the tiny stone island on February 24, 2022, the day Moscow launched its invasion, within the obvious hope of utilizing it as a staging floor for an assault on Odesa, Ukraine’s greatest port and the headquarters of its navy.
The island took on legendary significance for Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion, when Ukrainian troops there reportedly acquired a requirement from a Russian warship to give up or be bombed. The reply supposedly got here again, “Go (expletive) your self.”
The island’s Ukrainian defenders had been captured by the Russians however later freed as a part of a prisoner alternate. After the island was taken, the Ukrainian army closely bombarded the small Russian garrison there, forcing the Russians to drag again on June 30, 2022. The Russian retreat lowered the specter of a seaborne Russian assault on Odesa and helped pave the way in which for a deal to renew Ukrainian grain exports.
The tiny rocky outcrop that is change into a struggle legend
“Let the liberty that each one our heroes of various instances wished for Ukraine and that should be gained proper now be a tribute to all those that gave their lives for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “We will certainly win!”
Intense battles continued to rage on Saturday within the nation’s east and south as Ukrainian forces pressed their assaults in opposition to multi-layered Russian defences within the preliminary levels of their counteroffensive.
Ukraine’s inside ministry mentioned {that a} Russian rocket strike in town of Lyman killed eight civilians and wounded 13 others early on Saturday. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the jap Donetsk area, posted photos displaying a few of the lifeless, together with a physique mendacity below a bicycle and physique fragments on the pavement subsequent to a broken automobile, saying that “the Russian terrorists are persevering with to strike civilians in Donetsk.”
A personal residence, a store and some automobiles had been broken within the assault on Lyman, which sits only a few kilometres from the entrance line, the place Russian troops have lately intensified combating within the forests of Kreminna.
The UK Ministry of Defence mentioned in its newest intelligence replace that the jap city of Bakhmut that was captured by the Russians in Might has seen a few of the most intense combating alongside the entrance over the past week.
It mentioned that Ukrainian forces have made regular good points to each the north and south of Bakhmut within the Donetsk area, noting that “Russian defenders are extremely seemingly combating poor morale, a mixture of disparate items and a restricted means to seek out and strike Ukrainian artillery”.
Amid the combating, Russia and Ukraine accused one another of planning to sabotage the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant, which is Europe’s largest, fuelling fears of a radiation disaster. Ukraine’s army intelligence claimed on Saturday that Russian troops have planted extra mines across the plant, a declare that could not be independently verified.
The top of the United Nations nuclear company, Rafael Mariano Grossi, informed The Related Press that the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company specialists had lately gained entry to extra of the positioning, together with the cooling pond and gas storage areas, and located no mines there.
Grossi mentioned he was nonetheless pushing for entry to the rooftops of reactors the place Ukrainian officers accused Russia of planting explosives.
Because the tensions swirled across the plant, the Russian army has insisted that it has efficiently fended off Ukrainian assaults in numerous sections of the entrance.
On Saturday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was proven visiting firing ranges the place volunteer troopers are being skilled, a visit that comes two weeks after an abortive mutiny launched by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner troops marched on Moscow in a bid to oust Shoigu.
Prigozhin agreed to finish the mutiny, which represented the largest menace to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his greater than 20 years in energy, in alternate for an amnesty for himself and his troops and permission to maneuver to Belarus. On Saturday, Russian messaging app channels ran feedback by one in every of Wagner’s commanders, Anton Yelizarov, who mentioned that the mercenaries have taken depart however would ultimately deploy to Belarus.
Pitched battles alongside the entrance line in Ukraine are raging as NATO leaders are set to satisfy in Vilnius for a two-day summit subsequent week to supply extra assist in modernising Ukraine’s armed forces, create a brand new high-level discussion board for consultations and reaffirm that it’s going to be a part of their alliance in the future.
Forward of the NATO summit, the US has introduced that it’s going to present Ukraine with cluster munitions, a transfer that President Joe Biden described as a “tough determination”. Two-thirds of NATO members have banned the munitions which have a observe report of inflicting many civilian casualties, however the US sees their supply as a approach to assist bolster Ukraine’s offensive and push via Russian entrance traces.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov hailed the US transfer, saying that the supply of cluster munitions will assist the nation de-occupy its territories whereas saving the lives of the Ukrainian troopers.
Reznikov vowed that Ukraine will use the munitions just for the de-occupation of its territory and won’t hearth them at Russia’s correct territory. Reznikov additionally famous that the Ukrainian army is not going to use cluster munitions in city areas to keep away from hurting civilians, including that they are going to be put to motion within the area to “break via the enemy defence traces with minimal threat for the lives of our troopers”.
