Zelenskiy visits troops near Zaporizhzhia front as Russian pressure mounts

By Tom Balmforth and Max Hunder

LONDON/KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited troops near Ukraine's southeastern front on Thursday, warning of the need to shore up the lines after losing ground in increasingly high-intensity battles far from Russia's offensive in the east.

Zelenskiy, whose government is reeling from a corruption scandal, said the situation near the village of Orikhiv was "one of the most difficult" on a sprawling front and that thwarting Russian forces there was key to shielding the city of Zaporizhzhia.

"This (Zaporizhzhia) is an important city, the enemy certainly wants it. We certainly have to defend it," he said, awarding medals to troops and discussing ways to strengthen the lines.

MANPOWER SHORTAGES

Neither side has made any major breakthroughs on the battlefield since the first year of Russia's 2022 invasion. But Moscow's forces, which control 19% of Ukraine, have been on the offensive since late 2023 and have gradually edged forward.

At a time when Russian forces are closing in on the capture of the city of Pokrovsk in the east and bearing down on Kupiansk to the northeast, the newly-mounting pressure in the southeast is a worry for Ukraine and its allies.

With unusual candour, top Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said earlier this week that the situation had "significantly worsened" in parts of Zaporizhzhia region.

Roughly half of all Russia's frontline gains in the last two months have come around the southeastern settlements of Huliapole and Velyka Novosilka, said Konrad Muzyka, director of the Rochan military consultancy in Poland.

"Although this is not the main Russian effort, Ukraine's shortage of manpower has allowed Russian forces to make tactically significant advances," he said.

The push west of Velyka Novosilka could potentially threaten Huliapole from the north, he added.

"If Ukraine does not address these gaps, Russian forces may push further west — not only moving closer to Zaporizhzhia, but also risking the isolation of Ukrainian units in the south," he said.

Pavlo Palisa, a military official in the president's office, said Russian forces were probing for weak points and using foggy weather conditions to try to bypass Ukrainian positions in the southeast.

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Zelenskiy met soldiers in a bunker, held talks with military commanders and laid flowers for deceased soldiers on his trip. He said he discussed decisions needed to strengthen Ukrainian defences, including staffing and equipment.

The visit comes as Zelenskiy and his government are trying to extinguish the fallout from a major corruption scandal in the energy sector, which has maddened Ukrainians facing widespread blackouts due to Russia's bombing of power stations.

Ukraine has tried to increase the pain on Russia in recent months, using drones to target its oil infrastructure far behind the battle lines to try to create shortages and diminish Russian revenue streams.

The military said it hit an oil terminal in occupied Crimea, an oil depot in occupied Zaporizhzhia region and other military targets overnight. It said it used weapons including the Flamingo, a new Ukrainian-made ground-launched cruise missile it says has a range of thousands of kilometres.

At the height of the strikes between August and October, attacks and planned maintenance took 20% of Russia's refinery capacity offline, Reuters reported earlier, citing calculations based on information from three Russian industry sources.

(Additional reporting by Anastasiia Malenko and Olena Harmash; Editing by William Maclean and Alex Richardson)