President Putin Meets Military Leaders In Kherson & Lugansk

On Tuesday, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visited Kherson and Lugansk regions to talk to Russian military leaders and learn the status of the military operation in Ukraine.

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"I do not want to distract them from their direct obligations, but it is important that I listen to their opinion and exchange information with them about how the situation is developing," Putin told the Tass news agency.

In the Kherson region, he met Oleg Makarevich, the commander of the troops of the southern sector, and Mikhail Teplinski, the commander of the Airborne Forces.

"Teplinski was quite long on the front line and made a very detailed report of the march of the military campaign," the Russian president stressed, and denied rumors by British intelligence which alleged that Teplinski had recently returned to command after being replaced in January .

In Kherson, Putin also visited the headquarters of Makarevich’s troops. A few hours later, he flew by helicopter to the National Guard headquarters in Luhansk province, where Colonel-General Alexandr Lapin received him.

In this region, Putin asked military commanders to brief him on the situation in Zaporizhia City, located on the Dnieper River. A video broadcast by the Kremlin showed Putin congratulating the military on the Russian Easter and giving them a copy of a religious icon that belonged to defense ministers of tsarist Russia.

In mid-March, Putin visited the Crimean peninsula and Mariupol City in the Donetsk region, half of which the Russian forces control. The Kremlin did not prepare in advance Putin’s visit to Kherson or Lugansk, which Russian troops almost entirely command.