Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with the commanders of the two occupied regions, and the Russian army continues to shell the nearly destroyed Bakhmut, writes Reuters.
The Kremlin has informed that Putin attended a meeting of the army leadership in the Kherson region and the command center of the Russian National Guard in Luhansk. It is not known when the visits took place. Putin heard reports from the Air Force and Dnipro Army Group, as well as reports from senior officers about the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin very rarely visits active war zones.
Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk are four regions Russia declared annexed last September after fake referendums. Russian forces only partially control these areas. The Russians retreated from Kherson in November, and since then have been consolidating their positions on the east bank of the Dnieper.
The Russian winter offensive has brought virtually no success, and little progress has been made,
although the fighting has caused heavy casualties on both sides.
Battles have been raging in the vicinity of Bakhmut for months, and the Russians have repeatedly falsely reported that the city had been captured.
During the G7 meeting in Japan on Tuesday, the 18th of April, the group’s foreign ministers condemned Russia’s plan to deploy short-range tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. This is the first time since the end of the Cold War that Russia has decided to deploy weapons outside its territory.
The statement released after the meeting said: “Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and its threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus are unacceptable. Any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences.”
The G7 includes the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada, and all G7 countries have imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
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