Swedish king Carl Gustaf visits Ukraine, meets Zelensky

Prefer on Google by Oleg Sukhov Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia attend the 50th anniversary of his accession to the throne on Sept. 15, 2023 (Wikimedia). Carl XVI Gustaf, king of Sweden, and Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard arrived in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on April 17. Carl Gustaf met President Volodymyr Zelensky , and they laid flowers at the graves of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. This is the Swedish king's first visit to Ukraine during Russia's full-scale invasion. On March 12, Swedish authorities boarded a tanker in the country's territorial waters suspected of belonging to Russia's so-called shadow fleet. This marked the second such move by Sweden recently, a sign that European countries are stepping up countermeasures against possible Russian hybrid activities in the Baltic Sea. In February Sweden also announced a 12.9 billion crown ($1.42 billion) military aid package for Ukraine focused on bolstering air defenses.