Zelenskyy hails soldiers from a symbolic Black Sea Island to mark 500 days of war

By Felipe Dana | The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian President Volodymyr

Zelenskyy marked the 500th day of the war Saturday by hailing the country’s soldiers in a video from a Black Sea island that became the symbol of Ukraine’s resilience in the face of the Russian invasion.

Speaking from Snake Island, Zelenskyy honored the Ukrainian soldiers who fought for the island and all other defenders of the country, saying that reclaiming control of the island “is a great proof that Ukraine will regain every bit of its territory.”

“I want to thank—from here, from this place of victory—each of our soldiers for these 500 days,” Zelenskyy said. “Thank you to everyone who fights for Ukraine!”

It was unclear when the video was filmed. Zelenskyy was returning from Turkey on Saturday.

H e announced that five commanders of the defense of the Azovstal steel plant, a grueling months-long siege early in the war, were returning on the plane with him.

T he sprawling steelworks was the last bastion of resistance as Russian forces took control of the port city of Mariupol. Its defenders became renowned among U krainians for holding out in wretched conditions in the plant’s tunnels and corridors.

Azovstal’s more than 2,000 defenders left the steelworks in mid-May 2022 and were taken into Russian captivity. The five leaders, some of whom were part of the Azov national guard regiment that Russia denounces as n eo-Nazi, were freed in a September prisoner swap and taken t o Turkey.

Under the exchange, the leaders were to remain in Turkey until the end of the war under the Turkish president’s protection. There was no immediate official explanation from Ankara or Kyiv about why they were allowed to return to Ukraine.

“The return of the leaders of the Azovites from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing more than a direct violation of the terms of the existing agreements. Moreover, in this case, the terms were violated by both the Ukrainian side and the Turkish side,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russian forces took control of Snake Island on Feb. 24, 2022, the day Moscow launched its invasion, in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port and the headquarters of its navy.

The island took on legendary significance for Ukraine’s resistance, when Ukrainian troops t here reportedly received a demand from a Russian warship to s urrender or be bombed. The answer supposedly came back, “Go (expletive) yourself.”

The island’s Ukrainian defenders were captured but later freed a s part of a prisoner exchange. After the island was taken, the Ukrainian military heavily bombarded the small Russian garrison t here, forcing the Russians to pull back on June 30, 2022. The Russian retreat reduced the threat o f a seaborne Russian attack on Odesa and helped pave the way for a deal to resume Ukrainian grain exports.

“Let the freedom that all our heroes of different times wanted for Ukraine and that must be won right now be a tribute to all those who gave their lives for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “We will definitely win!”

I ntense battles continued to rage Saturday in the country’s east and south as Ukrainian forces pressed their attacks against m ulti-layered Russian defenses in the initial stages of their counteroffensive.

U kraine’s interior ministry said that a Russian rocket strike on the town of Lyman killed eight civilians and wounded 13 others early Saturday. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region, posted images show - ing some of the dead, including a b ody lying under a bicycle and body fragments on the pavement next to a damaged vehicle, saying that “the Russian terrorists are continuing to strike civilians in Donetsk.”

Lyman is a few kilometers (miles) from the front line, where Russian troops have recently intensified fighting in the forests o f Kreminna.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense said in its latest intelligence update that the eastern town of B akhmut that was captured by the Russians in May has seen some of the most intense fighting along the front during the last week. It said that Ukrainian forces have made steady gains to both the north and south of Bakhmut, noting that “Russian defenders are highly likely struggling with poor morale, a mix of disparate units and a limited ability to find and strike Ukrainian artillery.”

Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of planning to sabotage the Russiacontrolled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s largest, fueling fears of a radiation catastrophe. Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed Saturday t hat Russian troops have planted more mines around the plant, a claim that couldn’t be independently verified.

T he head of the United Nations nuclear agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told The Associated Press on Friday that the International Atomic Energy Agency experts had recently gained access to more of the site, including the cooling pond and fuel storage areas, and found no mines there. Grossi said he was still pushing for access to the rooftops of reactors where Ukrainian officials accused Russia of planting explosives.

O n Saturday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was shown visiting firing ranges where volunteer soldiers are being trained, a t rip that comes two weeks after an abortive mutiny launched by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, w hose Wagner troops marched on Moscow in a bid to oust Shoigu.

Prigozhin agreed to end the mutiny, which represented the biggest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more t han two decades in power, in exchange for an amnesty for himself a nd his troops and permission to move to Belarus. On Saturday, Russian messaging app channels ran comments by one of Wagner’s commanders, Anton Yelizarov, who said that the mercenaries had taken leave but would eventually deploy to Belarus.

Pitched battles along the front line in Ukraine are raging as NATO leaders are set to meet in Vilnius for a two-day summit next week to offer more help in modernizing Ukraine’s armed forces, create a new high-level forum for consultations and reaffirm that it will j oin their alliance one day.

By Bassem Mroue The Associated Press

BEIRUT—Russian fighter jets have “harassed” American drones over Syria for the third day in a row this week, the US military said.

Tension between Russian and US troops is not uncommon in Syria as both countries conduct patrols on the ground as well as overflights. Syria’s 12-year conflict has left half a million people dead and over 1 million wounded.

The US military said in a statement that Friday’s encounter lasted for about two hours during which three MQ-9 drones were “once again harassed” by Russian fighter aircraft while flying over Syria.

“Russian aircraft flew 18 unprofessional close passes that caused the MQ-9s to react to avoid unsafe situations,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, head of US Air Forces Central Command, said in a statement.

Rear Adm. Oleg Gurinov, head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, said earlier this week that the Russian and Syrian militaries have started a six-day joint training that ends Monday.

Gurinov added in comments carried by Syrian state media earlier this week that Moscow is concerned about the flights of drones by the US-led coalition over northern Syria, calling them “systematic violations of protocols” designed to avoid clashes between the two militaries.

The first friction occurred on Wednesday morning when Russian military aircraft “engaged in unsafe and unprofessional behavior” as three US MQ-9 drones were conducting a mission against the Islamic State group, the US military said. On Thursday, the US military said Russian fighter aircraft flew “incredibly unsafe and unprofessionally” against both French and US aircraft over Syria.

The US and France are part of an international coalition fighting IS that once controlled largest parts of Syria and Iraq where the extremists declared a caliphate. Despite IS defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria less than two years later, the extremists still carry out deadly attack in both countries.

On Friday, a drone attack by the US-led coalition killed a man in northern Syria who was riding a motorcycle. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the man was an IS militant.

Russia joined Syria’s conflict in September 2015 and has since helped tip the balance of power in favor of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. Russian warplanes still carry out attacks against the last major rebel stronghold in Syria’s northwest.

On any given day there are at least 900 US forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, who partner with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

“We continue to encourage Russia to return to the established norms of a professional Air Force so we can all return our focus to ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Grynkewich said, using a term to refer to IS. Gurinov, the Russian officer, warned that the increase of “uncoordinated flights” for the coalition’s drones leads to escalation and “Russia is not responsible for the safety of these flights.”