UKRAINE: Zelenskyy in car crash, his home town targeted by Russia, and he reports plans to get Crimea back

President Zelenskyy

A passenger vehicle colleded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s car early Thursday after a battlefield visit, but he was not seriously injured, his spokesman said.

Zelenskyy was returning to Kyiv from the Kharkiv region, where he visited troops in the recaptured city of Izium.

A passenger vehicle collided with the president’s motorcade in the Ukrainian capital, his spokesman, Sergii Nikiforov, said in a Facebook post. 

The driver of the other vehicle received first aid from Zelenskyy’s medical team and was taken away by ambulance, he said. Medics examined the president, who suffered no serious injuries, Nikiforov wrote. He did not specify what injuries Zelenskyy might have suffered.

The spokesman added that the circumstances of the accident are under investigation.

AP

President Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine has come under repeated missile strikes over the last day.

Russian forces have launched a missile attack on Kryvyi Rih again today after launching eight cruise missiles targeting a dam near the city yesterday, causing the Inhulets River to rise and flooding to parts of the city.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, said this on Telegram account Thursday morning that there had been another strike as he advised civilians to stay in shelters. Several hours later, he reported another cruise missile had hit an “industrial enterprise.”

“The destruction is serious,” he said, with details around the strike and its impact being clarified.

CNBC

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a key city recently liberated by Ukrainian troops and had a message for residents of Crimea: “We will arrive.”

Zelenskyy spoke to reporters after visiting scenes of destruction inflicted by Russian troops and helping to hoist Ukraine’s flag at Izyum, which only a week ago was held by invading forces. A Ukrainian counteroffensive sent Russian troops into a retreat and reclaimed the city on Sept. 10.

“We will come,” Zelenskyy said, addressing residents of Crimea. “I don’t know when. And nobody knows when. But we have plans. So we’ll come, because…it’s our land, and it’s our people.”

Zelenskyy expressed concern about the cumulative effect of televised Russian propaganda on Crimean children who have never known what it’s like to be part of Ukraine. Russia’s military seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

“The information war is very strong, and Russia attacked [Crimeans] by television, media … and of course, it will be very difficult for children when we come,” Zelenskyy said.

CNBC