Zelenskyy tells frontline troops path to peace runs through trenches
Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine overnight, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in what The Guardian described as “the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months.” The Guardian’s Europe Live blog, written by Jakub Krupa, reported damage to a business centre in Odesa, where rescuers from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service worked at the strike site. The latest attacks came as part of an air campaign against Ukraine’s energy grid, and the overnight strikes extended to infrastructure in multiple regions beyond Kyiv, including Odesa.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a post near the frontline, walking through trenches and speaking to Ukrainian defenders at a command post. “This is where independence is won. And the path to peace runs through these very labyrinths, these very corridors,” he said in a video published on his social media channels. “When we say, ‘Ukraine is holding on,’ this resilience begins right here at the front, in command posts like this and at every one of our positions because Ukraine has defenders.”
Separately, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was scheduled to travel to Münster, Germany, on Wednesday to meet with the 1st German-Netherlands Corps and with Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten. The three leaders were expected to speak at a joint press conference in the early afternoon.
Merz was later expected to deliver a major speech on Ukraine as he presents the 2026 International Award Ceremony of the Peace of Westphalia to Rutte in the early evening.