Putin visits occupied Ukraine: ‘It is important to hear your opinion’ | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

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The Russian president attends a high-level military briefing during a trip to regions partially occupied by Moscow, including Kherson and Luhansk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Russia’s military headquarters in Ukraine’s eastern regions and discussed the war with a general in charge of the Airborne Forces, who reportedly took a powerful new role in the invasion.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Putin had attended a meeting of the army command in the southern Kherson region and heard reports on the situation there. He also visited the headquarters in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin also released a video of the visit showing Putin – in a heavy blue jacket – taking a helicopter to Luhansk, but did not say when any of the meetings would take place. And on Sunday, Putin was in Moscow for a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Li Changfu.

The Russian leader heard reports from the commanders of the Airborne Forces, Army Group Dnieper and other senior officers about the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – both of which Moscow declared part of Russia.

“It is important for me to hear your views on how the situation is developing, to listen to you, to exchange information,” Putin told the leaders.

Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, commander of Russia’s Airborne Forces, sat to Putin’s right while Colonel General Oleg Makarevich sat to Putin’s left.

British military intelligence said on Sunday that Tblinsky had been given a key role in the war.

Battle of Bakhmut

Kherson and Zaporizhia are among four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed last September, though it does not fully control any of the regions, in a move that Kiev and its allies condemned as illegal.

In November, the Russian army withdrew from Kherson, the regional capital and largest city it had occupied since its conquest in February 2022. Since then, troops have consolidated their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River in anticipation of a renewed counterattack from Ukraine.

Russian and Ukrainian forces are currently engaged in a pitched battle for control of eastern Bakhmut, a town formerly known as a salt mining center but now in ruins.

On Tuesday, the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces said that Russian forces had intensified the use of heavy artillery and air strikes in the stricken city.

Fighting in and around Bakhmut has long been the epicenter of the war in Ukraine.

“The enemy is currently increasing the activity of heavy artillery and the number of air strikes, which is turning the city into rubble,” Gen. Oleksandr Sersky said in a statement.

He said that Russia was still committed to capturing Bakhmut “at any cost” but had suffered heavy losses.

The city, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000, was Russia’s main target in a winter offensive that yielded scant gains despite ground infantry fighting of an intensity not seen in Europe since World War II.

The capture of Bakhmut could provide a springboard for Russia to advance on two big cities it has long coveted in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

The head of the Wagner mercenary group, which spearheaded Russia’s attempt to seize Bakhmut, said this month that its fighters had controlled more than 80 percent of the city.

Ukraine denied this, saying it still controlled more than 20 percent of the city. It is widely expected that the Ukrainian military will launch a counter-offensive in the coming weeks or months with the aim of retaking Russian-controlled territory.

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