This is not the first time that Vladimir Zelensky has gone to the front line.
The Ukrainian leader makes regular visits to Donbass.
The current trip was undertaken with the aim of "maintaining the morale" of the military.
Judging by the way the Ukrainian army has been operating since the beginning of February, systematically increasing the density of artillery shelling of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, everything is in order with the fighting spirit of the defenders of Ukraine.
But on the whole, it is quite logical that the Ukrainian president has decided to visit the front line right now.
According to representatives of the People's Militia of the DPR, there has not been such an aggravation in the war zone since 2015.
Before the trip, Zelensky wrote on Twitter: "Ukraine needs peace and will do everything for this."
The peaceful intentions of the Ukrainian leadership are as follows.
The Internet is full of videos with shots of Ukrainian echelons, with which heavy military equipment - tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles - are transferred to the contact line.
Moreover, the trains ostentatiously, in full view of everyone, follow to the east during daylight hours.
It is clear that Kiev is deliberately flexing its muscles.
His goals are not entirely clear.
Is the Ukrainian leadership preparing a large-scale offensive or provoking an exacerbation in order to blame Russia for everything that is happening?
According to the deputy head of the presidential administration of Russia Dmitry Kozak, who held a press conference on Thursday, if Kiev decides to unleash hostilities, it will become a "shot in the temple" for him.
Kozak admitted that Russia would take the population of the republics under its protection, taking into account the fact that already half a million citizens of the DPR and LPR have become holders of Russian citizenship: “Today everything depends on the scale of the fire.
If there is, as our president says, Srebrenica, we will probably have to defend ourselves. "
At the same time, the Russian official does not particularly believe in the seriousness of the intentions of the Ukrainian authorities.
He believes that we are talking about a purely staged action: "The 95 Quarter team decided to stage a play called" Military Threat ".
“These are, rather, PR actions, which are accompanied by an imitation of a military threat, most likely there are no real intentions to unleash a full-scale war,” Kozak said.
On the same day, Vladimir Putin held telephone talks with Angela Merkel, the topic of which was the situation in Donbass.
The Russian president accused Kiev of escalating hostilities and building up heavy weapons and manpower on the line of contact.
In turn, the German chancellor urged the interlocutor to reduce the Russian military presence on the border with Ukraine.
In general, it seems that the parties failed to achieve mutual understanding.
Paris and Berlin continue, albeit not as explicitly as the United States, to support Ukraine.
A few days ago, Sergei Lavrov said that at meetings in the Normandy format, Germany and France were inactive, and urged them to "urgently" bring "Ukraine to life."
The main question - whether Ukraine will decide to go on the offensive - depends primarily on whether Kiev will secure guarantees of serious military support from Western countries.
Experts and political scientists both in Ukraine and in Russia are, for the most part, confident that there will be no one willing to participate in the conflict.
Everyone verbally expresses support for the Ukrainian leadership, but this will have no practical consequences.
The Ukrainians never tire of reminding them of the events of August 2008, when Mikhail Saakashvili, counting on the help of the West, decided to storm Tskhinvali.
He did not receive any help; instead of American troops, the Russian army entered the territory of Georgia and brilliantly carried out an action to force Georgia to peace.
Kiev is unlikely to want to repeat this sad experience.
It follows from this that Dmitry Kozak, who characterized the military preparations of Ukraine as "PR actions", is right.
However, this does not mean that the provocations will be stopped.
The ruling team, led by Zelensky, presents the case in such a way that the Russian military, who are allegedly participating in hostilities in the Donbass, are going to aggravate.
Europe and the United States accept this picture and make new claims against the Kremlin.
War is an extremely valuable foreign policy factor: it gives Ukraine an opportunity to stake out a place on the international political agenda.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.