The Ukrainian president’s visit near Bahmut seems much more relaxed than the Russian president’s visit to Mariupol over the weekend.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi visited the front line today, Wednesday. He went near Bahmut, which has been heavily fought for months.
On the way home, he stopped at a gas station to buy coffee. Reuters has forwarded a video of the “pit stop”.
– We pay for the coffee, Zelenskyi announced at the checkout.
According to Reuters, the cameras were not working at the time.
– Do you want to pay? All right, the gas station employee confirmed.
Inside and outside the gas station, there were plenty of soldiers and civilians eager to take selfies with the president. And the president had time for that.
In the pictures provided by Reuters, the atmosphere is significantly more relaxed than the Russian president Vladimir Putin On a visit to Mariupol last weekend.
Putin visited the city after dark, got to know the city’s reconstruction plans and, according to the Kremlin, met “ordinary people”, of whom a handful could be seen in the photos.
While Putin was greeting people, there was shouting in the background.
– All this is not true. This is all just a show, a female voice shouted.
The Kremlin later censored the scream out of the video. Another woman’s comment that residents are praying for Putin has been cut in its place.
Saturday’s visit was reportedly Putin’s first visit to the territories occupied by Russia from Ukraine.
Zelenskyi, on the other hand, has made several visits near the front line. In Bahmut, he distributed medals to the soldiers and visited the wounded in the hospital.
– It is an honor to be here today to reward our heroes. I shake hands and thank them for protecting the independence of our country, Zelenskyi wrote on their Telegram channel (you will switch to another service).
Source: Reuters