VOLODYMYR Zelensky filmed himself standing tall in a frontline warzone town that the Russians claimed to have captured just hours ago.
The Ukrainian president was seen inside Kupiansk, standing just a few miles away from the Russian position.
The selfie footage captured Zelensky in military fatigues – and exposed false claims by Moscow.
It was released just hours after a Russian war general told Vladimir Putin his troops had captured the strategic city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region.
Zelensky said in the video: “Today’s destination is Kupyansk. Our soldiers are achieving results for Ukraine.
“Thank you to every unit, to everyone who is fighting here, to everyone who is destroying the occupier.”
CRUNCH VOTE
Zelensky says Ukraine could hold referendum on giving up territory to Putin
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Putin had visited the command post of the Russian forces “West” grouping where he had met with the chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, and top military brass.
Gerasimov told Putin that the Russian forces had taken control of the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, as well as over 80% of Vovchansk.
Putin was also briefed on the situation in Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels hailed Zelensky, who “with balls of steel visits the very frontline in Kupyansk”.
Meanwhile, diplomats from Ukraine, Europe, the US, and Russia have been embroiled in complex negotiations for months to end the brutal war in Ukraine.
They have been exchanging proposals and counter-proposals in an effort to reach a consensus.
But all of them have snagged on one key issue: land concessions.
Russia has long demanded Ukraine hand over the whole of the Donbas region in exchange for peace – and that decision could now fall to the people through a referendum.
Zelensky has long said he has no “constitutional” or “moral” right to cede Ukrainian land.
He said yesterday that Ukrainians should have the final word.
A chasm remains between the Ukrainian and Russian positions on this – and as such, peace has always felt out of reach.
Zelensky said the status of the eastern Donetsk region and future control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant were the two key points of contention in the peace talks.
And that the US is still pushing for Kyiv to make big territorial concessions to Russia to halt the war.
Speaking to reporters, he said Washington wants only Ukraine to withdraw its troops from parts of the Donetsk region, where it would install a demilitarised buffer between the two armies.
The weary Ukrainian president revealed his officials have already responded to the latest US peace proposal – and he set out some of the Americans’ new suggestions.
He said the US had proposed the creation of a “free economic zone” – that would require both Ukraine and Russia to avoid contested areas around the frontline in the east.
The current plan would also see Russia withdraw from the Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts, and Ukraine has demanded that Putin hand Zaporizhzhia to the US, Zelensky said.
Moscow would also stay where it is in the south of the country, but pull some of its troops out of Ukrainian regions that Putin has not claimed to have annexed in the north.
Zelensky’s remarks appear to show little has changed in Washington’s core position on how the conflict should end since it sent a 28-point plan to Kyiv and Moscow last month that heavily favoured Russia.
Ukraine has been revising that and this week sent a 20-point counter-proposal to Washington, the full details of which have not been published.
In 2022, Russia claimed to formally annex the Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, despite not having full control over them.
Ukraine’s troops still hold around one-fifth of the Donetsk region, according to data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Much of eastern and southern Ukraine has been decimated by fighting.
Meanwhile, Putin vowed to seize the Donbass region by force if no peace deal was found, just days after also threatening he was “ready” to fight Europe.
Nato chief Mark Rutte has urged the West to prepare for war “like our grandparents endured”.