Ukraine war: President Zelenskyy injured in Kyiv car crash after battlefield visit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a photo with soldiers after attending a national flag-raising ceremony in the freed Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a photo with soldiers after attending a national flag-raising ceremony in the freed Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022 Copyright AP Photo / Leo Correa
Copyright AP Photo / Leo Correa
By Euronews with AP
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A spokesperson for his office says the injuries were not serious.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was involved in a car crash, when his vehicle collided with another vehicle early Thursday morning after a battlefield visit. 

A spokesperson said he was not seriously injured, but didn't specify what injuries the president might have sustained. 

Zelenskyy was returning to Kyiv from the Kharkiv region, where he visited troops in the recaptured city of Izium.

A passenger vehicle collided with the president’s motorcade in the Ukrainian capital, his spokesman, Sergii Nikiforov, said in a Facebook post.

The driver of the other vehicle received first aid from Zelenskyy’s medical team and was taken away by ambulance, he said. 

Medics examined the president, who suffered no serious injuries, Nikiforov wrote, but gave no more information on specifics of injuries. 

The spokesman added that the circumstances of the accident are under investigation.

Zelenskyy was late in posting the nightly video address that he has given during the war, possibly because of the car accident.

Visit to liberated city

Earlier on Wednesday President Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to the eastern city of Izium, which was recently recaptured from retreating Russian occupiers. 

They left the war-scarred city last week after a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive saw Kyiv reclaim large parts of the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Zelenskyy, with his hand on his heart, looked on and sang the national anthem as the flag was raised in front of a burned-out city hall building.

“The view is very shocking but it is not shocking for me," Zelenskyy told the press. "Because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories … the same destroyed buildings, killed people.”

Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, near Kyiv, early on in the war. The city came to global attention after the bodies of civilians -- many showing signs of torture -- were found dumped in the streets.

On the northern outskirts of Izium, the remains of Russian tanks and vehicles lay shattered along the road.

Zelenskyy said that as Ukrainian soldiers retook villages, "the life comes back.”

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