In his latest stop during a regional tour during which he will visit areas near the front line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited yesterday (Tuesday) two towns in the north of the country and trenches of border guards near Russia.
Video footage published by Zelensky's office showed that he was visiting Sumy, the sixth region he visited in a week. Zelensky walked with border guard commanders through a deep trench in an undisclosed location in the middle of trees in Sumy, while he was closely watched by troops in combat fatigues. He also visited the towns of Okhtyrka and Trostyanets. Both of which were expelled by Russian forces that had controlled parts of the Sumy region for about a month at the beginning of the war in February last year.
Some buildings in the two towns were badly damaged in the fighting, and Ukrainian officials say that territory near the border is still regularly bombarded by Russian artillery and air strikes.
"In these days and these weeks we celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of our cities and communities in our northern regions," Zelensky told a small gathering of soldiers and civilians at the railway station in Trostianets, before handing out medals.
On the other hand, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited defense industries in the Chelyabinsk and Kirov regions to ensure the efficiency of the missile and missile production lines and how to monitor the quality of these war products.
Russia Today channel website quoted a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense as saying: “The Minister of Defense verified the work of automatic lines for the production of artillery shells, tanks and mortar shells of various calibers, as well as unguided air missiles, as well as the quality control system of the mentioned products.”
The source added that the heads of the companies informed Shoigu of the current results of implementing the state's defense order, as well as the ongoing projects to modernize and expand production capacities and increase labor productivity, indicating that the minister set before the heads of these companies the task of the subsequent increase in the production of a full range of military products.
Okaz (Jeddah) @okaz_online