Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskyy visits Mykolaiv, meets with Danish PM Frederiksen

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the southern territory of Mykolaiv this week to meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The meeting marks a rare instance a foreign leader visited an area close to the front lines.

Zelenskyy met with Frederiksen on Monday in the city of Mykolaiv, with Zelenskyy’s office showing video footage of the two leaders greeting each other before entering a hospital to meet with wounded soldiers. Both leaders also visited the Mykolaiv Commercial Sea Port, viewing the oil storage tanks that were hit by Russian missiles and drones, as well as a heating point equipped with a water purification and distribution unit under a project backed by the Danish government.

“It is important for our warriors to be able to undergo not only physical but also psychological rehabilitation,” said Zelenskyy in a post on the Telegram messaging platform. “I am grateful to all the medical workers who care about the health of our defenders. I wish them a speedy recovery!”

Zelenskyy also thanked Frederiksen for Denmark’s assistance to Ukraine as the Danish defense ministry announced earlier this month that it would be sending 19 French-made Caesar howitzer artillery systems. Zelenskyy added that he met with the local government officials in Mykolaiv and discussed the long-term recovery of Ukraine and the status of the country’s energy infrastructure, which Russia has been targeting.

Zelenskyy and Frederiksen held a joint news conference in Odesa later in the day. Zelenskyy warned that Russia has been gearing up for an offensive as its invasion of Ukraine approaches its one-year anniversary.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov is set to travel to Paris on Tuesday and meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at a time of debate among Ukraine’s allies on whether to provide fighter jets, after US President Joe Biden ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Ukraine initially planned to push for the fighter jets like the F-16 after Kyiv secured pledges from Germany and the West to send battle tanks, according to an adviser to Reznikov Friday last week.

Despite Washington ruling out sending F-16s, France and Poland appear to be willing to entertain such a request from Kyiv, as Macron told reporters on Monday in The Hague that “by definition, nothing is excluded” in terms of military assistance to Ukraine.