The Kremlin said Saturday that President Vladimir Putin visited the commander of Russia’s operations in Ukraine and other military top brass. The meeting came after Ukraine claimed victory in a counteroffensive on the southeastern front.
“Vladimir Putin held a meeting at the headquarters of the special military operations group in Rostov-on-Don,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russia, which launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has described its actions as a special military operation.
The Kremlin added that Putin, Russia’s commander-in-chief, was listening to reports from Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Army General Staff in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military commanders and officers.
The meeting came after Ukraine announced that it had successfully taken over a small village along the front line, its first liberation since July. Kyiv has been aggressively counterattacking to recapture territory captured by Russia in the first months of the war. The counterattack went slower than expected.
The Kremlin gave no additional details about the meeting and it was not clear when it would take place. Video aired by state news agency RIA shows Gerasimov greeting Putin at night and leading him into a building after a brief handshake.
Gerasimov, who has rarely been seen in public in recent months, has been the target of fierce criticism from Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and some Russian military bloggers for Russia’s failures in the war in Ukraine.
Rostov-on-Don, a city only about 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, is home to the command of Russia’s southern military district whose troops are fighting in Ukraine.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian military said it had captured the small village of Urochaine in the Donetsk region, pushing ahead on its way towards the Sea of Azov to potentially cut off the Russian land bridge to Crimea, a key supply route for Moscow. (ah/ft)
