NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg makes surprise visit to Kyiv

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of NATO, made his first journey to Ukraine since Russia started its full-scale invasion last year on Thursday, when he paid a surprise visit to Kyiv.

According to a report from Deutsche Welle (DW), Stoltenberg paid respect to those who had died defending their nation against Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian capital today. He also examined Russian military artefacts on display in a well-known Kyiv square. The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is in town as Ukrainian forces prepare for their spring counteroffensive following the failure of Russian attempts to advance throughout the winter, especially in the region surrounding the town of Bakhmut.

NATO, which has 31 members, has promised to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian invasion.

According to DW in Germany, Stoltenberg has pushed the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to attend a NATO meeting in July. Kyiv started a proposal to join the NATO military alliance after Moscow said it had taken control of four areas of Ukraine.

Russia launched a number of strikes against Ukrainian targets during the past 24 hours, including 26 unmanned Shahed-136 drones, of which Ukrainian air defences shot down 21, according to the general staff of Ukraine on Thursday. Some of the Russian airstrikes, according to Ukrainian forces, were successful in hitting their military and civilian targets. Civilians were also said to have suffered casualties.

Additionally, Ukraine asserted that it had successfully thwarted 55 ground assaults in the Donetsk region, including ones close to the highly contested town of Bakhmut.