Zelenskyy will meet government officials at Harpsund, the prime minister’s official summer residence, which is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of the capital Stockholm, as well as King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia of Sweden, in a palace in the area, explained the Swedish executive.
Sweden abandoned its policy of military non-alignment to back Ukraine with arms and other aid in the war with Russia. According to the government, the country has allocated military aid to Kiev worth 20 billion crowns (1.7 billion euros), including Archer artillery units, Leopard 2 tanks, CV-90 artillery fighting vehicles, grenade launchers, anti-tank weapons, equipment removal of mines and ammunition.
Stockholm also applied to join NATO, but is still waiting to join the international alliance.
As Zelenskyy was arriving in Sweden, a Russian missile killed seven people and injured 117 others in the city center of Chernihiv, the capital of the northern province of the same name, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko announced. Among the deceased was a 6-year-old girl and the list of injured included 12 minors.
Zelenskyy condemned the attack, which he said hit buildings including a theater and a university.
“This is what it is to be a neighbor to a terrorist state, this is what the entire world has united against. A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Telegram. “A square, the polytechnic university, a theater. A normal Saturday that Russia turned into a day of pain and loss.”
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited senior military commanders in the city of Rostov-on-Don, near the Ukrainian border.
According to the Kremlin, Putin heard the reports from Valery Gerasimov, the commander in charge of Moscow’s operation in the neighboring country, and from other senior officials in the military hierarchy at the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District.
Although the time of the visit was not confirmed, state media published a video that appeared to be recorded at night, in which Gerasimov received Putin and escorted him inside a building. The meeting was held behind closed doors.
The Russian president’s visit was the first since an attempted mutiny by Wagner Group mercenaries in June, in which rebel fighters momentarily seized control of Rostov-on-Don.
During the short-lived revolt, Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly criticized Gerasimov, who serves as chief of staff for the Russian armed forces, and Kremlin Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for denying supplies to their fighters in Ukraine. .
Prigozhin indicated that the uprising was not directed against Putin, but was aimed at removing Gerasimov and other top military commanders who, he claimed, were mismanaging the war.
Ukraine claimed this week that its counteroffensive made gains on the southeastern front, where it regained control of the town of Urozhainem in the eastern Donetsk region on Wednesday.
The leader of the Russian battalion fighting to retain control of Urozhaine called on Thursday to “freeze the front,” saying his troops “cannot win” Ukraine.
“Can we militarily defeat Ukraine? Now and in the near future, no,” Alexander Khodakovsky said in a video posted on Telegram.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 15 of 17 Russian drones launched in the northern, central and western regions of the country early Saturday morning.
According to Western Khmelnytskyi Region Deputy Governor Serhii Tiurin, two people were injured and dozens of buildings were damaged in an attack.
In the northwestern province of Zhytomyr, a Russian drone hit an infrastructure and caused a fire, but no casualties were reported, Governor Vitalii Bunechko said.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
