Vladimir Putin makes 2nd Ukraine visit in attempt to rally Russian troops

Russia’s war in Ukraine has become largely deadlocked amid heavy fighting in the country’s east, particularly around the city of Bakhmut.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited command posts of the Kremlin’s forces fighting in Ukraine, officials said Tuesday, as the war approaches its 14th month and Kyiv readies a possible counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons.

A video released by the Kremlin and broadcast by Russian state television showed Putin arriving by helicopter at the command post of Russian forces in southern Ukraine’s Kherson province and then flying to the headquarters of the Russian National Guard in Luhansk region, which is the east.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the visits took place Monday. The trip, Putin’s second in two months to Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, represented an apparent attempt by the Russian leader to rally his troops and to demonstrate his authority.

Dressed in a dark suit, Putin appeared to chair meetings with his military top brass during both stops. The locations of the military headquarters weren’t disclosed, making it impossible to assess how close they were to the front line. It was impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the video footage.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has become largely deadlocked amid heavy fighting in the country’s east, particularly around the city of Bakhmut, which for 8½ months has been the stage for the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.

Kherson and Luhansk, along with Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia provinces, are four areas that Russia illegally annexed in September following local referendums that Ukraine and the West denounced as shams. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak was scathing in his criticism of Putin’s trip, accusing the Russian leader of “degradation” and being the author of “mass murders” in the war.

Both then and now, large parts of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as well as some areas of Luhansk province, have remained under Ukrainian control. In November, Russian forces ceded territory in Kherson province, including the region’s namesake capital.

In both locations he visited, Putin congratulated the military divisions on Orthodox Easter, which was celebrated Sunday, and presented them with icons. Speaking to senior officers at the Kherson headquarters, Putin handed them a copy of an Orthodox icon he said belonged to a famous Russian general of the 19th century.