The administrator of Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, said troops had secured a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal mining town whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion since the outset of the war. A day earlier, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village just north of Bakhmut, a city that has been the focus of sustained Russian attacks for months.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, together with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, visited wounded Ukrainian defenders in one of the hospitals in Mykolaiv.
Frederiksen’s coalition has committed to increasing Denmark’s defence spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2030 rather than the 2033 deadline contained in an agreement between the Social Democrats and right-wing parties in March.