Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose trips outside the capital kyiv have been rare since the start of the Russian invasion, paid his first visit to the town of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine on Saturday.
A video, released by the Ukrainian presidency, shows him inspecting a badly damaged residential building and holding a meeting with local officials.
Mykolaiv, a port and industrial city of almost half a million inhabitants before the war, is still under Ukrainian control, but it is close to the Kherson region, occupied by the Russians. It remains a target of Moscow because it is on the road to Odessa, the country’s largest port, 130 km to the southwest.
The visit comes a day after a Russian strike killed two people and injured 20 in the city.
In the video, local governor Vitaliy Kim shows Mr Zelensky the damage to a residential building. The large building presents a gaping hole, with the interior of the apartments visible.
A blue and yellow Ukrainian trident was visible on one of the broken windows.
Mr. Zelensky also attended a meeting with local officials in what looked like an underground basement, where he handed out awards for bravery.
His office said they “discussed the state of the economy, the restoration of water supplies and the situation of agriculture”.
“Special attention was paid to land and sea threats. We never stop working for victory,” the statement read.
Later on Saturday morning, five civilians were killed and 12 others were injured in Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk, in Ukraine’s breakaway east, pro-Russian local authorities said in a statement.
“As a result of shelling by Ukrainian forces, five people were killed and 12 others were injured in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR),” the local authorities’ general staff said in the statement posted on the social network. Telegram.