Ukraine’s recently-inaugurated president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has visited the war zone in Donbas for the first time as a sitting head of the state, the presidential press service reported late on May 27.
During the one-day trip, Zelenskiy visited the city of Schastya near the frontline in Luhansk Oblast, some 650 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, and forward military strongpoints near Stanytsia Luhanska, an entry checkpoint into the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk.
According to the report, the combat posts that the president visited are located some 400 meters away from enemy lines.
“The head of state has communicated with soldiers regarding their living conditions, the quality of their nutrition, as well as equipment supplies, housing, social security, and the staffing of the armed formations,” the press service said.
“After inspecting the service conditions of our defenders, Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted the need to improve provisions (for the soldiers).”
Despite public expectations that Zelenskiy’s first official visit as president would be to Brussels or Washington, the new president, who was inaugurated on May 20, paid his first visit to the war zone.
In Donbas, Zelenskiy met with two key military commanders who he had recently appointed: Lieutenant General Oleksandr Syrskiy, the top leader of Ukraine’s 40,000-strong combined forces in the war zone, and Lieutenant General Ruslan Khomchak, the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces.
The country’s top military leaders reported to the president that “the situation (in the combat zone) remains under control,” the Joint Forces Operation press service said late on May 27.
Zelenskiy’s visit to the war zone sparked an uproar in Ukrainian social media, mostly among supporters of former President Petro Poroshenko, who have bitterly criticized the new president for a number of initiatives related to the war voiced by Zelenskiy or his close allies.
In his inauguration speech on May 20, Zelenskiy vowed to seek an end to the 5-year conflict by searching for a peace agreement with Russia. However, the president promised not to give up any of Ukraine’s territories.
The following day, Andriy Bohdan, later appointed Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, asserted that a negotiated peace deal with Russia could be put to a national referendum to obtain broad public support. Bohdan declined to reveal any red lines the Zelenskiy administration would refuse to cross in concessions to the Kremlin.
This led Zelenskiy’s critics to attack the new president over his alleged readiness to betray Ukraine’s national interests and sovereignty for the sake of ending the war, which has claimed at least 13,000 lives since 2014.
Amid furious criticism over the Zelenskiy administration’s contradictory and somewhat unclear position on the war, the new president’s adversaries expected him to stay away from Donbas — unlike Poroshenko, who, according to his campaign, had made 26 trips to the war zone during the five years of his presidency.
Poroshenko used his frontline trips, which were widely covered by the media, to promote the image of a strong wartime leader, especially during the 2019 presidential campaign. However, the former president also drew criticism for demonstratively wearing a military uniform and weapons during meetings with troops or even Western envoys on military issues.
Unlike his predecessor, Zelenskiy went to the frontline wearing civilian clothing and basic body armor with cartridge pouches and a camouflage helmet probably borrowed from military personnel.
Even so, Zelenskiy faced criticism from some in Ukraine’s veteran community for wearing a highly visible bright blue shirt underneath his vest, which would generally be considered unacceptable in a war zone.
