MOSCOW (AFP) – The Kremlin said yesterday that President Vladimir Putin had visited two frontline regions in Ukraine, prompting a strong rebuke from Kyiv which said he was viewing “the crimes of his minions”.
The Kremlin did not say when Putin visited the southern region of Kherson and the eastern region of Lugansk, which Putin claimed to have annexed last September without fully controlling them.
The Kremlin chief sent troops to Ukraine in February, 2022, triggering the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Ukrainian forces have said they are preparing for a spring counter-offensive. After Putin’s visit was made public yesterday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had shelled the central market area of Kherson, injuring six people. Last year, Russia was beaten back in northern and southern regions and Moscow’s forces have made only incremental gains in eastern Ukraine.
Much of the fighting is now concentrated around the eastern town of Bakhmut which has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.
During his trip to Ukraine, Putin met Russian military commanders and discussed the situation on several fronts of the pro-Western country, the Kremlin said.
Video footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin disembarking from a helicopter as he visited the headquarters of the Dnieper army group in the Kherson region.
He also visited national guard headquarters in Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
“It’s important for me to hear your opinion on the situation, to listen to you and to exchange information,” Putin said in the video, surrounded by senior military commanders. His trips to Kherson and Lugansk came after the Kremlin said in March that the Russian leader had made a surprise trip to the port city of Mariupol that Moscow captured after a long siege last spring.
British military intelligence said yesterday that “heavy fighting” continued along the Donbas front line.
“However, there is a realistic possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is decreasing offensive action around Donetsk city, most likely to divert resources towards the Bakhmut sector,” it said in a statement on Twitter.
The statement said that in Bakhmut, Russia’s regular troops and forces from the Wagner mercenary outfit continued to make “creeping advances”.
“The frontline in the town centre largely follows the main railway line,” the statement said.
