Russia Steps Up Heavy Artillery Bombardments On Bakhmut

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his commanders in two regions of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed, while Russian forces stepped up heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

The Kremlin said “Putin had attended a military command meeting in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and visited a national guard headquarters in eastern Luhansk.” It did not say when the visits took place.

Putin heard reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the Dnieper army group as well as other senior officers who briefed him on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south.

“It is important for me to hear your opinion on how the situation is developing, to listen to you, to exchange information,” Putin, 70, told the commanders.

Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk are the four regions that Putin proclaimed annexed last September following what Kyiv and its Western allies said were sham referendums. Russian forces only partly control the four regions.

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 counter offensive.

While numerous Western leaders have made their way to Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since Russian forces invaded 14 months ago, Putin has rarely visited parts of Ukraine under Russian control.

Last month, he visited Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014 – and the southeastern city of Mariupol in Donetsk region.

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.

Reuters/Shakirat Sadiq