Regional official: “The fiercest battles” as Ukraine’s situation worsens in Severodonetsk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met front-line soldiers and internally displaced Ukrainians during a trip to the Zaporizhia region on Sunday.

A statement from the Ukrainian presidency said that Zelensky “visited the forward positions of the Ukrainian army” and took the opportunity to “get acquainted with the operational situation on the front line of defense”.

The president spoke with the soldiers, presented them with state awards and thanked them for their service, according to the statement.

He also made a trip to a sanatorium where displaced Ukrainians, forced to flee their homes, are receiving shelter and medical care, according to a separate statement from the Ukrainian presidency.

Some more context: Nearly 12 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky told lawmakers in Luxembourg on Thursday.

IDPs who traveled from the southern city of Mariupol told the president the “tragic events they experienced due to the Russian invasion”, and pleaded with him to help recover lost documents and issue death certificates for relatives who died in the temporarily occupied territories. regions, according to the statement.

Zelensky invited them to make proposals for “legislative changes” that could be made to simplify the procedure for obtaining these documents.

He assured the displaced that everyone who lost their homes would be provided with “comfortable housing,” according to the statement.

Finally, Zelensky gave a gift to an 8-year-old boy, Yehor Kravtsov, who kept a diary while living under the bombing in Mariupol. Yehor, whose writings “Memoirs of Mariupol” were published on social networks, shared his experiences with Zelensky in the bombing of the city.