Zelenskyy visits Bakhmut, Ukraine, in hopes of bolstering morale

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday visited Bakhmut, a focus of some of the most intense combat of Russia's nearly 10-month-old war, while Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the “courage and self-denial” of his front-line forces in Ukraine. 

Hi, I'm Nicole Fallert with an update on Ukraine.

Zelenskyy's unannounced trip to the combat zone appeared designed to shore up the morale of Ukrainians and to dishearten the Russians trying to encircle the city. 

Meanwhile, Putin hailed his country's military and security agencies during a Kremlin awards ceremony Tuesday. He presented various awards, including ones to the Moscow-appointed heads of four regions of Ukraine that Russia illegally annexed in September. 

Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s power grid since October as part of a strategy to try to leave the country without heat and light during the winter.

Putin’s brief trip to Minsk, Belarus, this week could herald more military support for the Kremlin’s war effort after Moscow’s neighbor and ally provided Russia with a launching pad for the invasion. Putin said he and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko discussed forming “a single defense space” but rejected claims that Moscow was poised to swallow its neighbor.