Live news: Zelenskyy uninjured in car accident upon returning to Kyiv from Ukraine’s war-torn east

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, suffered no serious injuries after being “examined by doctors” following a car accident upon returning to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after visiting far eastern regions recently liberated from Russia’s invading army, his spokesperson said.

“In Kyiv, a car collided with the car of the President of Ukraine and escort vehicles,” Serhiy Nykyforov, Zelenskyy’s press secretary, said in a Facebook statement in the early hours of Thursday.

“Medics accompanying the Head of State provided the driver of the car with emergency aid and transferred him to an ambulance. The president was examined by a doctor. No serious injuries were found,” Nykyforov said, adding that “law enforcement officers will find out all the circumstances of the accident”.

The incident occurred after Zelenskyy on Wednesday visited the strategic town of Izyum, liberated by his army last week in a lightning counterattack that saw Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces flee the battlefield in northeastern regions of Ukraine.

In his daily video address to the nation, delayed by hours due to the accident, Zelenskyy said: “I returned from Kharkiv region — from our Kharkiv region … Today, almost the entire region is de-occupied.”

Zelenskyy added that “the Ukrainians once again managed to do what many thought was impossible” by liberating more than 4,000 sq km of territory in the country’s north-east in the face of Russia’s army.

Pointing to more alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in the eastern regions of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said: “The world must see these destructions, must feel the pain that Russia has brought to Ukrainians.”

The president added: “What the world saw in Bucha, what we saw in the de-occupied territory of Chernihiv region, Sumy region, and what you and I are seeing now in Kharkiv region are evidences of genocide against Ukrainians. Evidence that Russia cannot bring anything other than genocide.”