NATO chief visits Chernihiv Oblast during his two-day trip to Ukraine
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has visited Chernihiv Oblast during his two-day trip to Ukraine, including the village of Yahidne, where Russian forces held more than 300 civilians captive.
Rutte, who had arrived in Kyiv on 3 February, said on X he visited the city of Chernihiv and the surrounding area the next day. He stayed in Ukraine for a further night after the large-scale combined Russian attack that preceded his arrival.
Rutte, alongside Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Viacheslav Chaus, Head of Chernihiv Oblast Military Administration, visited the village of Yahidne. He was shown a basement where Russian troops had held the village's residents for almost a month in 2022. Dozens of people died in Yahidne.
Rutte also inspected an energy facility in the oblast that was hit in a Russian attack.
In Chernihiv, he visited a local invincibility centre, where he spoke with emergency workers and local residents. [Invincibility centres are heated premises stocked with food and power banks to assist residents facing hardships due to power cuts.]
Mark Rutte arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday 3 February and said that Ukraine's allies would find more than US$15 billion to purchase weapons for Ukraine's Armed Forces.
In Kyiv, Rutte visited one of the capital's combined heat and power plants that was damaged in a Russian attack.
Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), Rutte said 90% of missiles for Ukraine's air defence have been delivered through the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) programme.