Zelenskyy says images of Hiroshima annihilated by the atomic bomb remind him of Bakhmut — and give him hope that Ukraine can rebuild
- While in Hiroshima for the G-7 summit, Zelenskyy likened the city's destruction in WW2 to Bakhmut.
- The Ukrainian president made the comparison after visiting the atomic bomb museum, the NYT reported.
After an emotional visit to Hiroshima's atomic bomb museum on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy likened the city's destruction in World War II to the war-torn devastation in Bakhmut.
While he acknowledged the attacks on both cities are different and can't compare, Zelenskyy said, "the pictures of ruined Hiroshima really totally remind me of Bakhmut," The New York Times reported. "Nothing alive is left."
But he said seeing Hiroshima's thriving urbanscape today gave him hope for Ukraine's future after the war.
"We dream of rebuilding all our cities that are now in ruins and every village where not a single house is left after Russian strikes," he said, Al Jazeera reported.
Zelenskyy visited the memorial site in Hiroshima on Sunday after a busy weekend at the G-7 summit.
At a press conference, the Ukrainian president said the atomic bomb's explosion in 1945 produced imagery and memories that evoke the mass destruction seen across Ukraine today, Politico reported.
"There are lots of tragic pictures in the museum. The children, little babies, before their death, and we have similar pictures unfortunately" in Ukraine," he said, according to Politico. "Only tears are in my eyes."
Recent photographs and drone footage from Bakhmut show homes, parks, schools, and bustling streets eroded into unrecognizable blocks of ash and ruin.
Bakhmut has seen some of the deadliest fighting, with both Ukraine and Russia now seeing its conquest as a sort of symbolic victory in the ongoing war of attrition.
While at the G-7 summit, Zelenskyy denied Russia had control of the city.