The main command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine unanimously supports the defense of the sector of Eastern Ukraine, including the surrounded city of Bakhmut, with the aim of inflicting maximum losses on the enemy, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Tuesday evening, who told his compatriots that “The strength of the defense and security forces is in the power of the people”. reports News.ro.

In his daily speech, in which he summarizes the results of the day, Zelenskyi admitted to his compatriots that he spent an emotional day, awarding hundreds of Ukrainian volunteers, 47 of them posthumously. Among them were Oleksandr Matievskyi, a soldier originally from the Republic of Moldova, who became famous after he died defying the Russians, and Dmytro Kotsubailo “Da Vinci”, also a famous figure in Ukraine, who volunteered for military service and fought in the East from 2014, when he was a teenager.

Zelensky presented Matievsky’s mother with the posthumous title of “Hero of Ukraine” for her son, and the lover of the “Da Vinci” hero Alina Mykhaylova, who is herself a volunteer of the Ukrainian army, presented the president with a military badge of a former soldier.

Both Matievskyi and Kotsubailo died in the battles near Bakhmut.

But the heavy losses suffered by the Ukrainian army did not force the Ukrainian military commanders to change their minds and the order remains to hold Bakhmut, a place that is also called a “meat grinder” because of the fierce fighting that is going on. between Russians and Ukrainians for several months.

“The main attention is paid to the group of operational and strategic troops “Khortytsia” and “Bakhmut”. There is a clear position of the entire General Staff: by strengthening this direction, to cause as much damage as possible to the occupier,” Zelenskyy said.

“Of course, at the meetings of the General Staff, we constantly consider the issue of the supply of ammunition and weapons. We are constantly working with our partners to increase pressure on Russia,” the president assured Ukrainians, which he repeats every evening.

And, as he does every evening, Zelensky made sure that his speech conveyed a message of encouragement, confidence and mobilization:

“The strength of Ukrainians and the state as a whole lies in the fact that Ukrainians become fighters at a decisive moment – they do not lose their temper, fight, do not look for someone else, do everything to return what they have. is theirs. We will win this war. We do everything for this. We support each other. We are strengthening the state.

We unite the world for the sake of our victory, which, in fact, consists in the actions of all those who fight for Ukraine, who fight for our state and for their brothers, who do everything to prevent the enemy from taking away our land or our Ukrainian glory – said Zelensky.