Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy in car crash as he accuses Russia of turning occupied areas ‘into toilets’

Ukraine’s president has made a rare foray outside Ukraine’s capital to highlight Moscow’s “embarrassing” retreat from the counter-offensive. 

Although late posting his nightly video address – in part due to a car crash (see previous post – Mr Zelenskyy remained defiant as he said the region of 400 settlements was entirely de-occupied.

“The Russian army has been in the Kharkiv region for more than five months. And during this time, the occupiers did not even try to do anything for the people,” he said.

“They only destroyed, only deprived, only took away. They left behind devastated villages, and in some of them, there is not a single undamaged house. 

“The occupiers left schools turned into garbage dumps, and churches – broken, literally turned into toilets.”

He also criticised forces for the missile attack on Kryvyi River: “Your missile attacks today, Russian missiles targeting Kryvyi Rih, the dam of the Karachunivske Reservoir, the objects that have no military value at all, in fact hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians, is another reason why Russia will lose. 

“And not just this war, but history itself.”