Kyiv, May 23 (EFE).- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday visited troops in the Vuhledar and Maryinka area of the frontline Donetsk region to mark the Day of the Navy.

“Every day on the battlefield, the Ukrainian Navy proves that it is a powerful force that destroys the enemy, liberates Ukrainian lands, and performs the most difficult tasks in the most difficult conditions,” Zelenskyy said, according to his official website.

The Ukrainian leader greeted servicemen, most of whom were wearing the blue beret of the navy sailors, and posed for photographs.

Zelesnkyy also awarded several soldiers deployed in the area for “personal courage and heroism” in defending the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of their country against the Russian invasion.

Further away in the Russian region of Belgorod on the border with Ukraine, authorities launched an anti-terrorist operation and evacuated civilians from nine localities after a wave of drone attacks that injured 12 civilians and damaged 29 houses and three cars.

“The residents of Grayvoron, Novostroyevka, Gorkovsky, Bezymeno, Mokraya Orlovka, Glotovo, Gora Podol, Zamostye, Spodaryusheno have been relocated,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladko wrote on Telegram.

Gladko said the ongoing counter-terrorism operation was launched on Monday after an attack on the Grayvoron district, which Russia has blamed the Ukrainian armed forces for.

Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has been shelling towns and infrastructure in the country ever since. EFE

mg/smq/ch