Zelenskyy visits troops near eastern Ukraine's front lines for Armed Forces Day

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops close to front lines in the eastern Donbas region to mark the country's Armed Forces Day, according to video published by press service on Tuesday (December 6).

Video showed Zelenskyy meeting soldiers and handing out awards more than nine months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"And surely, the way towards the Independence Square in Kyiv and our freedom goes through free Donetsk, Luhansk and certainly Crimea," he said, referring to regional capitals in eastern Ukraine that were seized by Moscow-backed proxies in 2014 and the peninsula that was captured by Russia and forces loyal to Moscow in 2014.

Zelenskyy did not indicate exactly where he met the troops on Tuesday.

He also recorded a separate video in which he spoke in front of a huge sign with letters saying Sloviansk, a city held by Ukrainian forces near the besieged city of Bakhmut.

Ukrainian officials say fighting is raging around Bakhmut as Russian troops seek its capture to gain a greater foothold in Donbas following battlefield setbacks elsewhere.