Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a military command meeting in Ukraine's Kherson region and visited the national guard headquarters in the eastern Luhansk region, the Kremlin said
said Putin on Monday had attended a military command meeting in Ukraine's southern Kherson region and visited a national guard headquarters in eastern Luhansk.
A senior Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, took to Twitter to mock Putin's trip as a "'special tour' of the mass murders' author in the occupied and ruined territories to enjoy the crimes of his minions for the last time". Russian troops retreated from Kherson city, the regional capital, last November, and have been reinforcing their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive this spring.
A Russian winter offensive failed to make much progress and its troops have been bogged down in a series of battles in the east and south, where advances have been incremental and come at a huge cost to both sides.Fighting has raged in and around Bakhmut in Donetsk region for months, with Ukrainian forces holding out despite regular claims by Russia to have taken the city.
The head of the Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded Russia's attempt to take Bakhmut, said this month that its fighters controlled more than 80% of the city. Ukraine's military has denied this. "Any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences," they said.
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