It was not immediately clear where in Bakhmut the president had visited, or how close he had ventured to front line positions. Amid heavy fighting in recent days, some military analysts said that the Russians were making incremental advances, and had warned that Ukrainian troops were at risk of being encircled.
“The President visited the advanced positions of one of the mechanized brigades, the personnel of which is confronting the enemy on the approaches to the city,” Zelensky’s Facebook post said. “The head of state listened to the commander’s report on the operational situation, material and technical support and proposals for further actions. While in the area of hostilities, Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Ukrainian soldiers for their courage, resilience and strength, which they demonstrate while repelling enemy attacks.”
A video released by a state-run media outlet showed Zelensky, wearing an army green winter jacket, standing by a table with 17 medals on display, then heartily shaking hands with shoulders as he handed out each award.
Ukrainian officials have sought to draw a contrast between Zelensky’s willingness to visit his troops on front line positions or in recently liberated cities, such as Kherson, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s apparent lack of trips to the front lines, where critics say Russia has deployed thousands of conscripts, many without proper equipment or training.
Military analysts have questioned why Putin seems willing to pay such an enormous price to take Bakhmut, which lacks obvious strategic importance.
Much of Russia’s fighting in Bakhmut has fallen to the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company. In his nightly address on Monday, Zelensky called Bakhmut the “hottest spot” on the front.
The Ukrainians have for weeks defied predictions that Bakhmut was on the precipice of abandonment to Russian control. Russian forces have attempted to encircle the city, leading to bloody fighting for incremental gains in the south and east and in some of the suburban outskirts outside the city, according to military analysts.
Ukrainian forces said they had also repelled an additional attempt by Wagner fighters in the northeast section of the city, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Monday.
Russian military bloggers reacted to Zelensky’s reported visit by claiming it reflected an attempt to shore up Ukrainian support for the broader war ahead of its loss of the city.
Fighting has continued at a slower pace along a roughly 620-mile front in eastern Ukraine.
The Institute of War also reported Russia had intensified ground attacks since Sunday in several areas along the front, including near the regional capital of Donetsk and the city of Kreminna further north in the Luhansk region. Speculation has mounted that Ukraine may try to launch a southward offensive through the Zaporizhzhia region, aiming to cut off the Russian-controlled “land bridge” between mainland Russia and Crimea, which was invaded and illegally annexed in 2014,
In his address on Monday, Zelensky said that the fight for Bakhmut is “breaking” the Russian forces. Ukraine’s military has previously estimated that as many as 100 Russian troops are being killed each day in Bakhmut.
“Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes on,” Zelensky said. “And Bakhmut is already breaking not only the Russian army but also Russian mercenaries who came to replace the lost soldiers of the occupiers.”
Stern reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Mary Ilyushina in Riga, Latvia, contributed reporting to this story.
