Zelenskyy hosts EU official von der Leyen as Russian attacks wound at least 14 people in Ukraine

At least 14 civilians were injured in Russian attacks in Ukraine over the last day, officials said Saturday, as the president of the European Union’s executive arm returned to Kiev to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Yurii Malashko, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, stated that nine persons were injured in a Russian rocket attack on the village of Zarichne. According to him, 26 cities and communities in the region have been attacked in the last day.

Five individuals were injured in the Kherson region, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. He claimed that artillery, mortars, drones, aeroplanes, and tanks were used in the region’s attacks.

Nikopol, a city of the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, came under fire, but no injuries were immediately reported, according to Dnipropetrovsk regional Gov. Serhii Lysak.

On Saturday evening, the Russia-appointed governor of the annexed Crimean Peninsula said that air defense missiles were fired in the city of Kerch and that fragments fell on a shipyard. He didn’t give further details.

Kerch is at the western end of the bridge to Russia’s Krasnodar region, which is a crucial conduit for food and military supplies. The bridge has been hit by significant attacks twice.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Saturday morning and was met by Zelenskyy at the train station.

She tweeted that talks during her sixth visit would focus on the path for Ukraine to join the EU “and how we will continue to make Russia pay for its war of aggression.”

The visit came a week before she was due to present a report on the enlargement of the EU, which von der Leyen said will note Kyiv’s progress on its path to membership in the 27-member bloc.

“I must say you have made excellent progress. This is impressive to see,” von der Leyen said after the meeting with Zelenskyy. “We should never forget you are fighting an existential war and at the same time you are deeply reforming your country.”