Zelenskiy, Danish PM meet in south Ukraine

Video footage posted online by Zelenskyi’s office showed the President shaking hands with Frederiksen on a snowy street before entering a hospital, where they met soldiers wounded in the Russian invasion.

“It is important for our warriors to be able to undergo not only physical but also psychological rehabilitation,” Zelenskyy wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

“I am grateful to all the medical staff who are looking after the health of our defenders. I wish them a speedy recovery!”

The two guides also visited the commercial seaport of Mykolaiv, where they saw oil storage tanks hit by Russian missiles and drones, and a heating point equipped with a water purification and distribution unit as part of a Danish-supported project.

Zelenskyy thanked Frederiksen for supporting Denmark, whose Defense Ministry announced earlier this month that the country would donate 19 French-made Caesar howitzer artillery systems to Ukraine.

The president said he also met with local officials in the Mykolaiv region, which has been subject to frequent attacks by Russian forces since the invasion 11 months ago.

“The region heroically withstood all terrorist (Russian armed forces) attacks. During the visit, I held a meeting on the current situation in the region,” he wrote.

“We discussed the operational situation in southern Ukraine, the consequences of Russian missile and drone attacks.”

The talks also included the state of the region’s energy infrastructure and the region’s long-term recovery, Zelenskiy said.

The Ukrainian president’s visit came as Russian forces claimed increasing gains in the east of the country.

The administrator of the Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, said troops had a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal-mining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion since the beginning of the war.

A day earlier, the leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force said his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village north of Bakhmut, a town that has been the focus of sustained Russian attacks for months.

Ukraine said it held off attacks on Blahodatne and Vuhledar and Reuters could not independently verify the situation there.

But the locations of the reported fighting showed clear, if gradual, Russian gains after about two months when the front lines were largely frozen.

“The situation is very difficult. Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other sectors in Donetsk region – there are constant Russian attacks,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Sunday.

“The enemy does not count his people and maintains a high attack intensity despite numerous casualties.”