War in Ukraine, day 444 | Zelensky meets Pope in Rome, Ukrainian army says advancing around Bakhmout

(Rome) Before a visit to Berlin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was received in Rome on Saturday by Pope Francis and Italian leaders against the backdrop of an intense battle in Bakhmout.

With the Pope, 86, the 40-minute interview focused “on the humanitarian and political situation in Ukraine caused by the war,” the Vatican said in a statement. The two officials “agreed on the need to continue efforts to support the population”.

“The pope particularly underlined the urgent need for ‘gestures of humanity’ with regard to the most fragile people, victims of this conflict,” the statement said.

For his part, the Ukrainian president indicated that he had affirmed his gratitude “for the attention” paid “personally to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians”. He added on Telegram that he had discussed the fate of “tens of thousands of children deported” according to Kyiv by Russia.

Beforehand, facing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Ukrainian president had stressed that he had “not come to complain. I came to talk about our cooperation and to thank you once again for your help, for the good of our country, because we want peace,” he said in the presence of the media.

“Italy has done an important thing by strengthening its energy independence from Russia. This deprives the terrorist state of the possibility of putting pressure on you,” added Volodymyr Zelensky who also met Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

Italy will continue to assure its “full and total support to facilitate the gradual integration of Kyiv into the European Union […] we are ready to support a further intensification of the partnership with NATO”, affirmed M^me Meloni.

This is the Ukrainian president’s first visit to Italy since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

On the ground, the Ukrainian army claimed to be “advancing” around Bakhmout, the epicenter of fighting with Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, while Moscow assured that it was continuing its progress in the city already mostly under its control and today largely devastated.

According to a Ukrainian judicial source, a Russian strike near Bakhmout left two dead and ten injured, including children.

bloody battle

“The defensive operation in the direction of Bakhmout continues. Our soldiers are advancing in some areas of the front, and the enemy is losing equipment and troops,” Ukrainian ground troops commander Oleksandre Syrsky said on the Telegram social network.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the Ukrainian claims, but said in a statement that “assault units liberated a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the city of Artyomovsk”, the Russian name for Bakhmut. .

The battle for Bakhmout is the bloodiest and longest since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.

Observers doubt the strategic significance of conquering this city for Russia, but it would allow Moscow to post a victory after several humiliating setbacks.

For its part, Kyiv assumes that it wants to exhaust the Russian army as much as possible by fixing it in this area of ​​Donbass before launching an offensive aimed at reconquering the occupied territories in the east and south of the country, the preparations for which “are nearing their end” according to Ukrainian officials.

At least one Russian army Mi-8 helicopter crashed on Saturday in a region bordering Ukraine, killing two people on board, the Russian rescue services announced, without the causes being clearly established at this time. stadium.

According to a Russian occupation official in Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, it is actually a total of “two Russian Mi-8s, a Su-35 and a Su-34” which “were shot down” and “the pilots of the helicopters and Su-34 killed”. These claims, however, have not been denied or confirmed by the authorities.

Moscow accused Kyiv on Saturday of having used British long-range Storm Shadow missiles the day before to target “civilian targets” in the Luhansk region (east) under Russian control. Russia reported “wounded, including six children” in this strike attributed to the Ukrainian army.

After Italy, Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Germany on Sunday, a government source in Berlin told AFP. He is expected to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The German government has just announced new arms deliveries to Kyiv worth 2.7 billion euros, including tanks, armored vehicles, drones and anti-aircraft defense systems.

“We all want a quick end to this atrocious war of Russia against the Ukrainian people […]. That is why Germany will provide all the help it can, for as long as necessary,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement.

This aid “shows directly that […] Russia is doomed to lose,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaïlo Podoliak said on Twitter.