Zelensky Visits Frontline Kharkiv Region, Awards Special Ops Soldiers

On Special Operations Forces Day, President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated frontline servicemembers and recognized the SSO (Special Operations Forces) fighters’ work that have “strengthened Ukraine and weakened Russian troops,” the Presidential website says.

Zelensky visited the Special Ops advanced command post in the Kharkiv sector near Vovchansk on Monday, July 29, to decorate the SSO soldiers with medals and recognize their service with state awards, including two titles of Hero of Ukraine – the nations’ highest award.

In officiating the frontline ceremony, Zelensky emphasized the importance of the locale: “Kharkiv sector. The advanced command post of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; Vovchansk district.”

“It is an honor to be here today and to congratulate our SSO soldiers on their professional day, to honor them with state awards,” Zelensky said.

SSO fighters are engaged in the hottest areas of the front and have been successfully conducting special operations and fulfilling their duties as soldiers, Zelensky said.

The President expressed gratitude for their heroic operations behind enemy lines; during the defense and liberation of Ukrainian territories, cities, and villages, beginning with the defense of the Donetsk airport in 2014, then Hostomel, and the Kherson region; and current operations in the Kharkiv region.

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“Please take care of yourselves,” Zelensky said. “Today you are on this path; it’s probably one of the most difficult. The whole country is counting on you.

“We will definitely win,” he added.

In addition to honoring the soldiers with state awards, including two Heroes of Ukraine, the nation’s highest award, the President assigned the honorary title “in the name of Corporal General Vsevolod Zmienko” to the 142nd training center of the SSO. [The modern equivalent of Corporal General is Brigadier General – ed.]

Ukraine’s top leaders celebrated Special Operations Forces Day on the front

In addition to President Zelensky, Lt. Gen. Syrsky and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov were on hand at the front to congratulate the servicemembers on the Special Ops recognition day.

During the visit, Zelensky and the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) Commander-in-Chief, Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, received a briefing from the Special Ops Commander, Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Trepak. The report covered the SSO’s strategic development, ongoing and upcoming tasks, and three key areas of focus: psychological operations, resistance movements in temporarily occupied territories, and special purpose units’ actions.

Zelensky recognized the frontline SSO fighters for their work that has resulted in a strengthened Ukraine and weakened Russian troops.

“The hottest areas of the front. The most important combat operations. The most responsible tasks,” he said in his greeting.

Syrsky added that SSO soldiers are all heroes in the Ukrainian resistance movements behind enemy lines and in temporarily occupied Ukrainian lands, who make “the ground burn under the feet of the invaders.”