Richard Branson meets Zelensky as Russian forces pound Bakhmut with missiles 

Richard Branson met with Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday as Russian forces pounded Ukraine with missiles.   

The Virgin Galactic founder met Ukraine’s president in Kyiv, the place he turned a brand new ambassador for UNITED24, Ukraine’s official fundraising platform.

Thanking British billionaire Branson for his assist, Zelensky stated: ‘It is essential that well-known and influential personalities preserve becoming a member of this platform. One of our key duties is to maintain the world’s concentrate on Russia’s struggle in opposition to Ukraine, which has been occurring for over a yr.’

Branson informed Zelensky that on the way in which to Kyiv he met some troopers in Lviv, together with one ‘who misplaced each arms and a leg and he was nonetheless smiling and optimistic and wished to get again to the frontline’. 

Earlier Branson was in Bucha, exterior Kyiv, with American philanthropist Howard Buffett, supporting the development of a kitchen that can assist feed youngsters in instructional services. 

The kitchen will support communities in Bucha, Borodianka and Nemishaevo.

Branson attended an occasion for the kitchen with Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Oleksiy Kuleba and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska.

Mayor Fedoruk stated on Telegram on Monday: ‘More than 10,000 scorching meals can be cooked right here every single day for our kids. Another comparable manufacturing facility can be constructed within the Kharkiv area with Mr. Howard’s assist as properly.’ 

Branson additionally met with Zelensky in June, a number of months after the invasion began on February 24. 

Branson wrote in a letter on his web site that he talked with Zelensky, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kubela and a bunch of Ukraine enterprise leaders whereas additionally stopping off at among the websites Russians had attacked for the reason that struggle broke out.

‘My essential goal in going to Kyiv was to satisfy and take heed to Ukrainians, to grasp their fears and considerations and likewise to study what enterprise, in partnership with civil society and governments, can do to assist Ukraine most successfully,’ he wrote.

Branson stated he noticed Zelensky near the tip of his go to for a ‘private assembly’ that included members of the president’s cupboard.

‘The distinction to our first dialog, simply two days previous to the invasion, couldn’t be any larger,’ Branson stated. ‘In the eyes of the world and his personal folks, the President has emerged as a uncommon wartime chief who initiatives each unbreakable spirit and indefatigable willpower to see this struggle by means of and repel the aggression.’

On Monday, Russian forces pressed assaults on frontline cities in jap Ukraine, whereas Ukrainian officers performed down a report that Kyiv is amending some plans for a counter-offensive attributable to a leak of categorised US paperwork.

The Russians had been pounding Ukrainian positions round besieged Bakhmut within the jap Donetsk area and different cities and cities with air strikes and artillery barrages, Kyiv stated.

‘The enemy switched to so-called scorched earth ways from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery hearth,’ Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s floor forces, stated of Bakhmut.

The small metropolis on the sting of a bit of Russian-controlled territory in Donetsk has for months been the largest battleground of the struggle, now in its second yr.

The head of the Moscow-controlled a part of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, stated Russian forces now held 75 per cent of the town.

Moscow’s navy was additionally focusing on the town of Avdiivka.

‘The Russians have turned Avdiivka into a complete break,’ stated Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk’s regional governor, describing an air strike on Monday that destroyed a multi-storey constructing.

‘In complete, round 1,800 folks stay in Avdiivka, all of whom danger their lives every single day.’