Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday visited Ukrainian troops in the Bakhmut region and presented awards, the office of the Ukrainian president said.
“I am honored to be here today to present awards to our heroes. Shake their hands and thank them for protecting the sovereignty of our country,” Zelenskyyy wrote on Telegram under a video recording of the ceremony. Awards.
Meanwhile, last night as Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Moscow after an official visit, Russia used Iranian drones against Ukraine, killing at least four people near Kiev.
The Ukrainian military said it managed to shoot down 16 drones out of 21 Shahed drones (this is the total number of Iranian-made drones involved in the attack).
The drone attack was followed by a missile attack on two residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, where officials said one person died and 25 were hospitalized.
Zelenskyyy called the attack on Zaporizhzhia an act of “brutal cruelty”.
Meanwhile, a British Ministry of Defense intelligence update released on Wednesday notes that Moscow’s advance on Bakhmut could slow as a Ukrainian counterattack launched in recent days west of the city is likely to relieve pressure on a threatened supply route.
The risk of encirclement of Bakhmut remains, but there is now “a real possibility that the Russian offensive against the city will lose the limited momentum it had previously”, the document notes.
The UK has rejected Moscow’s accusations that supplying Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions poses a risk of a “nuclear clash”. On Monday, Britain confirmed it was supplying such shells to Ukraine, but according to Foreign Secretary James Cleverley there is no threat to Russia.
“There is no threat to Russia, it’s just about helping Ukraine defend itself,” Cleverly said.
Western countries note that Moscow lacks missiles and drones, as large-scale airstrikes against targets far from the front lines, as happened on Wednesday, occurred for about a week at the end of 2022, but have become less frequent in recent weeks.