Kyiv, Ukraine:
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin had visited two frontline regions in Ukraine, prompting a strong rebuke from Kiev, which said it saw “the crimes of its followers”.
The Kremlin did not say when Putin visited the southern Kherson region and the eastern Lugansk region, which Putin claimed to have annexed last September without fully controlling them.
The Kremlin chief sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, sparking Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Ukrainian troops have said they are preparing for a spring counter-offensive.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, dismissed Putin’s trip as “a ‘special tour’ by the author of mass murders … to enjoy for the last time the crimes of his followers.”
After Putin’s visit was made public on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian troops had shelled Kherson’s central market area, injuring six people.
Last year, Russia was beaten back in the northern and southern regions and Moscow’s troops made only small gains in eastern Ukraine.
Much of the fighting is now centered around the eastern city of Bakhmut, the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.
During his trip to Ukraine, Putin met with Russian military commanders and discussed the situation on several fronts of the pro-Western country, the Kremlin said.
Video footage released by the Kremlin shows Putin disembarking from a helicopter as he visits the headquarters of the Dnieper Army Group in the Kherson region.
He also visited the National Guard headquarters in Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
“It is important for me to hear your views on the situation, listen to you and exchange information,” Putin said in the video, surrounded by senior military commanders.
The Russian leader wished the troops a happy Easter, which Orthodox Christians celebrated last Sunday, and presented them with copies of ancient icons, the Kremlin said.
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 had captured last spring after a long siege.
‘Creeping Progress’
British military intelligence said on Tuesday that “heavy fighting” continues along the Donbas frontline.
“However, there is a realistic possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is phasing out offensive actions around the city of Donetsk, most likely diverting resources to the Bakhmut sector,” it said in a statement on Twitter.
The statement said that in Bakhmut, Russia’s regular troops and Wagner mercenary forces continued to make “creeping progress”.
“The front line in the city center largely follows the main railway line,” the statement said.
Ukraine, the statement said, wants to “free up a strike force, while Russia is likely to aim to establish an operational reserve”.
Ukrainian ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russian forces are not giving up on their goal of taking control of Bakhmut “at any cost” and are stepping up the use of heavy artillery and airstrikes.
For his part, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said Russia currently “has no offensive potential for a strategic offensive operation”.
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, meanwhile, said he had spoken with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We agreed on further coordination on the issue of aid in Ukraine and discussed further steps in that direction,” he said on Telegram.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)