THE President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced today that he visited the city Avdiivkaon the eastern front, which for months has been repeatedly attacked by Russian forces trying to encircle it.

“Avdiyivka, I visited the positions of the 110th motorized brigade,” the Ukrainian president wrote on his Telegram account, accompanying the post with a video showing him in front of a sign bearing the city’s name, awarding soldiers.

“We discussed with the commander the situation in terms of defense and basic needs,” he added.

Zelensky noted that Avdiivka is in one of the “difficult zones of the front line” and that he “personally thanked the soldiers and those on the front line for their services.”

“The whole country survived thanks to these soldiers,” he stressed.

The Ukrainian president has visited the front line several times since the start of the war. Among other things, he went to Bahamut, where one of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought for months, before it fell into the hands of the Russians, in May.

This week Russia announced that it had captured another town in the region, Marinka, located a little further north. The Ukrainian army confirmed that it withdrew to the outskirts of this city.