STOCKHOLM – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting Sweden on Saturday — his first talk over with to the rustic since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine remaining yr, the Swedish executive mentioned.
It mentioned Zelenskyy will meet Swedish executive officers in Harpsund, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Stockholm. He will even meet Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at a palace within the space.
Sweden deserted its longstanding coverage of army nonalignment to give a boost to Ukraine with guns and different assist within the war in opposition to Russia. It additionally carried out for NATO club however is still waiting to join the alliance.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited best army officers within the Russian town of Rostov-on-Don close to the Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin mentioned that Putin listened to reviews from Valery Gerasimov, the commander accountable for Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and different best army brass on the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District.
The actual timings of his talk over with weren’t showed, however state media revealed video pictures that seemed to be filmed at evening, appearing Gerasimov greeting Putin and main him right into a construction. The assembly itself was once held at the back of closed doorways.
Putin’s talk over with was once the primary since the Wagner mercenary group ’s tried mutiny in June, which noticed the crowd’s warring parties in short take keep an eye on of Rostov-on-Don.
During June’s short-lived riot, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin again and again denounced Gerasimov, who serves as leader of the overall workforce of the Russian military, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for denying provides to his warring parties in Ukraine.
Prigozhin claimed that the rebellion was once no longer aimed toward Putin however at taking out Gerasimov and different best brass who he claimed had been mismanaging the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine this week has claimed counteroffensive beneficial properties at the southeastern entrance, regaining keep an eye on of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s japanese Donetsk area on Wednesday.
The chief of the Russian battalion combating to take care of keep an eye on of Urozhaine referred to as for “freezing the front” on Thursday, claiming his troops “cannot win” in opposition to Ukraine.
“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Alexander Khodakovsky mentioned in a video posted to Telegram.
Overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air drive mentioned, it shot down 15 out of 17 Russian drones focused on Ukraine’s northern, central and western areas.
The deputy governor of the western Khmelnytskyi area, Serhii Tiurin, mentioned two folks had been wounded and dozens of structures broken by way of an assault.
In the northwestern Zhytomyr area, a Russian drone assault focused an infrastructure facility and brought about a hearth, however no casualties had been reported, mentioned Gov. Vitalii Bunechko.
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