A man in military uniform walks past a makeshift memorial at the rubble of a vocational school that Russian servicemen used as barracks, in Makiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, 11 January 2023. The Russian Ministry of Defence reported that 89 servicemen were killed on New Year's Eve after a Ukrainian missile strike hit one of the locations of Russia's military in Makiivka, in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. The military commissar of the Samara region, Alexei Vdovin, on 10 January said a general list of servicemen killed in the strike would not be made public, but the families were informed. EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO GUERRA Zelensky made his comments after visiting the Lviv region, where he discussed border protection and the security situation in northwestern Ukraine.
Kyiv has warned that Russia may try to use Belarus to launch a new ground invasion of Ukraine from the north. Zelensky made no reference to such warnings in comments on the Telegram messaging app after taking part in what he described as a coordination meeting on security matters in the Lviv region.
"We discussed state border protection, the operational situation on the border with the Republic of Belarus, and counter-subversive measures in these territories," he said.
"We understand that apart from powerful statements, we do not see anything powerful there, but nevertheless we must be ready both at the border and in the regions."
Zelensky's office released footage of Zelensky at the coordination meeting, and said the president also took part in a ceremony honouring the memory of Ukrainian soldiers killed in battle following Russia's invasion last February.
Zelensky did not refer on Telegram to fighting under way in eastern Ukraine, where the Ukrainian military has denied losing control of the town of Soledar in fierce combat.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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