Putin visits Russian troops in occupied southern Ukraine
Conrad Hoyt
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Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Russia’s military headquarters in Ukraine on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin. It was his second such visit to occupied Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine since March.
In a video released by Russian state TV, Putin could be seen departing a helicopter at an undisclosed location in the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, not far from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014.
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Putin reportedly made his visit in order to learn firsthand from officers about the combat situation in Ukraine. After visiting Kherson in the south, Putin traveled by helicopter to the headquarters of the Russian National Guard in Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine, to learn more from commanders, per the Associated Press.
Putin annexed four occupied regions last September, including the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, in a move widely condemned and seen as illegitimate by the West.
A month ago, Putin visited the occupied city of Mariupol, an area that became a worldwide symbol of defiance in the face of aggression as Ukrainian forces attempted to defend their land from Russia during the first few months of the war. However, the city was pounded to rubble by consistent Russian shelling, which also killed more than 1,000 civilians, according to Ukrainian officials.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces has reached a bit of a standstill in recent days as Ukraine gears up for a long-expected counteroffensive to try and retake the land it lost from Russia. But Ukraine’s capacity to launch a massive effort with the resources it has in place remains uncertain.
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Since invading his western neighbor in late February of last year, Putin has defended the “special military operation” as a necessary action to rid Ukraine of its Western overlords, adding that Ukraine is full of Nazis.
But many worldwide powers, including the United States and the majority of nations in NATO, have instead characterized Putin’s invasion as a destructive quest for power and control, leading to unnecessary bloodshed, civilian casualties, and even war crimes allegedly inflicted by Russian soldiers.