Status: 04/18/2023 12:49 p.m
For the first time since the illegal annexation, Russian President Putin has visited the Ukrainian regions of Cherson and Luhansk. Meanwhile, in Bachmut, the fighting continues with undiminished severity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the Kherson and Luhansk regions for the first time since the Russian military offensive in Ukraine began more than a year ago. According to the Kremlin, Putin met with the soldiers stationed there and held talks with the commanders. There was no more precise information about the time of the visits.
It was also said that Putin brought congratulations and icons to the armed forces in the Kherson and Luhansk regions on the occasion of the Orthodox Easter celebrated last Sunday.
Putin spoke with the commander of the Russian Air Force, Mikhail Teplinksi, and other high-ranking military officials about the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. “It is important to me to hear your opinion on the situation, to listen to you, to exchange information,” Putin said in a video released by the Kremlin.
Dark green: Russian army advancing. Hatched: areas annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/04/17/2023
Meeting with General Staff in Luhansk region
It was Putin’s first visit to the Kherson and Luhansk regions since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. Both regions are partially controlled by Russian troops. In September 2022, Moscow declared Cherson and Luhansk, along with two other Ukrainian regions, to be annexed.
In November 2022, the Russian army withdrew from the city of Cherson, capital of the region of the same name, to retreat to the other side of the Dnipro River.
In the Luhansk region, Putin met with representatives of the General Staff of the Russian National Guard stationed there, the Kremlin said.
In March, Putin paid a visit to the Crimean Peninsula, which has been annexed by Russia since 2014. He then traveled on to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which was besieged by the Russian army for months last year and captured in May 2022.
More heavy fighting for Bachmut
According to information from Kiev, heavy fighting continues in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Russian troops attacked from the air and with heavy artillery, said the commander of the land forces, Olexander Syrskyj. At the same time, Syrskyj emphasized: “The situation is currently under control.” The Ukrainian soldiers inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy and slowed down the Russian attacks.
According to British intelligence services, units of the regular Russian army and mercenaries from the Wagner group in Bakhmut continue to make only “gradual progress.” Currently, the front line in the city center largely corresponds to the railway line. To the south, Ukrainian units were holding off the Russians along the old main road leading west out of the city, the British Ministry of Defense said.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
“For both sides, the exact sequence of a major withdrawal of their units in the Bakhmut area has become a critical issue,” it said in London. Ukraine wants to unleash offensive forces, while Russia wants to regenerate its reserves.
According to the latest information from Moscow, around 80 percent of the city area is occupied by Russia after months of fighting. Hundreds of civilians are said to be holding out in the largely destroyed city in the Donetsk region, which used to have more than 70,000 inhabitants.
Kyiv: Russian advances repelled
According to Syrskyj, Russian advances were also repulsed on other front sections. The colonel-general specifically mentioned the sections of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region and Lyman on the border between the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
It is expected that the Ukrainian army could launch a major counter-offensive in several sectors in the coming days.