- Zelenskyy once risked Russian sniper fire to get a bowl of soup near Kyiv, according to TIME.
- Zelenskyy's aides refer to the excursion — in which he met a cook supplying the front lines — as "the borscht trip."
- While Russian forces were still trying to capture Kyiv, public appearances from Zelenskyy were rare.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy once risked Russian sniper fire to get a bowl of soup on the outskirts of Kyiv, TIME reported on Thursday.
When Russian forces were still trying to seize control over Ukraine's capital city in early March, Zelenskyy one day decided to travel to a checkpoint near the edge of the city, the report said.
There, he met a man who brought fresh borscht — a traditional eastern European soup — to Ukrainian troops, the report said. Zelenskyy ate a bowl of the borscht with bread while in range of Russian sniper fire and shelling.
Zelenskyy told TIME that the cook spoke about hating the Russians and that they chatted about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Zelenskyy's aides now refer to the excursion as "the borscht trip," according to the report, and said it left an impression on the Ukrainian president.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin was still trying to take Kyiv and strike at the heart of Ukraine's government, Zelenskyy would rarely leave his command center fortress to avoid being the target of an airstrike or shelling.
A few days before "the borscht trip," Zelenskyy had insisted on viewing the impacts of the war up close, according to TIME. He met with troops on the frontlines and viewed the damage caused by fighting.
For weeks, Putin's forces focused their attack on the suburbs of Kyiv — bombing residential areas and gunning down civilians en masse.
Russian forces have since retreated from the Kyiv region after failing to capture Ukraine's capital city, focusing on a renewed offensive in the country's eastern Donbas region instead.
Zelenskyy has been seen recently outside on the streets of Kyiv — meeting with world leaders like UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson or top European Union officials.