President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, touring areas affected by Russia’s full-scale invasion and its monthslong campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, he said on Thursday,
The New York Times reports.
“We have to ensure full restoration and protection of our energy sector!” Mr. Zelensky said in a post on Telegram, the social messaging app. “I am grateful to everyone who works for this and returns the light to our people!”
Rebuilding Ukraine after one year of Russia’s war will cost $411 billion, with the conflict’s cost growing as it continues, the World Bank said in a report released Thursday.
The new figure represents a substantial increase from one the bank released in September, when it estimated the cost of rebuilding at $349 billion. Since fall, Russia has stepped up targeted attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving civilians without access to power, heating or water.
The visit was Mr. Zelensky’s second to a frontline area in two days. On Wednesday, he made a defiant trip to the area around the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a potent symbol of Ukrainian resistance as Kyiv’s forces battle to hold off a relentless Russian onslaught.
Mr. Zelensky’s travels to regions partly occupied by Russia come as Western allies ramp up supplies of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, which is preparing for an anticipated counteroffensive that could include a push to retake captured territory.
Though Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson, the regional capital, from Russian forces last November in one of its most significant victories of the yearlong war, Moscow still controls territory in the wider Kherson province. Russian forces have used positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River to shell the city of Kherson on the opposite side of the waterway, preventing Kyiv from being able to restore a sense of normality in the city.
