Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared the next steps to take on the battlefield in Ukraine during an extraordinary meeting with the top brass of the Armies fighting in the neighboring country.
“Comrades officers, today we will listen to the commanders on each operational flank. I would like to know your proposals on our actions in the short and medium term,” Putin said, as reported by the Kremlin today.
Putin personally visited the joint operational command of the troops deployed in Ukraine on Friday, said Dmitri Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman.
Accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, he listened to various reports on the progress of the “special military operation” and had separate discussions with the commanders.
Last week Putin admitted that the campaign could continue over time, but highlighted as successes the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, although Moscow does not fully control them, and the conversion of the Azov into a Russian inland sea.
Several senior Ukrainian officials have assured these days that the Kremlin is preparing a major offensive at the beginning of 2023 and they do not rule out that the Russian Army will try again to take the capital, kyiv.
In this regard, the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said that “Russia is preparing for a long war” and was convinced that Putin “will launch new offensives.”