Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his commanders in two regions of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed, while Russian forces stepped up heavy artillery bombardments and airstrikes on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The Kremlin said that during the visit on Monday, Putin had attended a military command meeting in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and visited a national guard headquarters in eastern Luhansk.
Putin heard reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the Dnieper army group, as well as other senior officers who briefed him on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south.
“It
