The Kremlin chief sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest conflict in Europe.
Kyiv, Ukraine:
President Vladimir Putin visited two border regions in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, prompting a strong rebuke from Kiev, which said it was looking into “the crimes of its ministers”.
The Kremlin did not say when Putin would visit the southern region of Kherson and the eastern region of Lugansk, which Putin claimed to have annexed last September without fully controlling it.
The Kremlin chief sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Ukrainian forces have said they are preparing a spring counter-offensive.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, dismissed Putin’s visit as “a ‘special visit’ of the author of mass murders … to enjoy the crimes of his ministers for the last time.”
After Putin’s visit was made public on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had shelled the central market area of Kherson, injuring six people.
Last year, Russia was pushed back in northern and southern regions and Moscow’s forces have made only incremental gains in eastern Ukraine.
Much of the fighting is now centered around the eastern city of Bakhmut in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.
The Kremlin said that during his trip to Ukraine, Putin met with Russian military commanders and discussed the situation on several fronts in the pro-Western country.
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 the National Guard Headquarters in Lugansk, eastern Ukraine.
“It is important for me to hear your opinion on the situation, listen to you and exchange information,” Putin said in the video surrounded by senior military commanders.
The Kremlin said the Russian leader greeted the troops on Easter, which Orthodox Christians mark last Sunday, and presented them with copies of old icons.
His trip to Kherson and Lugansk came after the Kremlin said in March that the Russian leader had made a surprise visit to the port city of Mariupol that Moscow captured after a long siege last spring.
‘Crawling Advance’
British military intelligence said on Tuesday that “heavy fighting” continued along the Donbass front line.
“However, there is a real possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is reducing offensive actions around the city of Donetsk, most likely to divert resources towards the Bakhmut region,” in a statement on Twitter. Said.
The statement added that in Bakhmut, Russian regular troops and forces of the Wagner Organization of mercenaries continued to “crawl forward”.
“The front line in the city center largely follows the main railway line,” the statement said.
Ukraine, the statement said, “wants to free up an offensive force, while Russia wishes to regenerate an operational reserve.”
Alexander Syrsky, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian troops were not giving up their goal of taking control of Bakhmut “at any cost”, using heavy artillery and airstrikes.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, for his part, said Russia currently has “no offensive capabilities for a strategic offensive operation.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, meanwhile said he had spoken with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We agreed on further coordination on the issue of providing assistance to Ukraine and discussed further steps in this direction,” he said in a telegram.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)