Putin visits occupied regions in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday visited two regions in Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed, meeting with military commanders in both Kherson and Luhansk, according to the Kremlin.

Putin met with commanders at the headquarters of the Dnepr Group of Forces in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and the Vostok National Guard in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine to discuss the Russian war effort in the regions.

Moscow formally annexed Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk last fall, after a series of local referendums that were denounced as shams by the U.S. and its Western allies. However, Russian forces have only partly controlled the regions since the announcement.

Putin’s visit was his second in two months to the annexed regions, after he traveled to Mariupol in the Donetsk region last month, Reuters noted.

“Now the president visits the new regions more frequently, naturally, he inspects headquarters, receives operational information on the spot about the progress of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS. “This is vital for the commander-in-chief, this is how he works.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, described Putin’s visit in a tweet on Tuesday as a “’special tour’ of the mass murders” in the annexed regions.