Russian military campaign in Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin has asked the commanders of his armed forces for proposals on how they think the Russian military campaign in Ukraine should proceed, during a visit to the operation’s headquarters, the Kremlin reported on Saturday.
A series of defeats in 10 months of fighting, which have led to the Russian withdrawal from the areas near the capital, kyiv, and from the second Ukrainian city, Kharkov, and more recently from the city of Kherson, have forced Putin to call reservists and drew infrequent public criticism from military bloggers and some allies.
Since the October appointment of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin to lead the campaign, Russian ground forces have focused more on defense than attack, while waves of airstrikes on cities have left millions of Ukrainian civilians dead. without heating, electricity or water for days on end, as winter approaches.
In a video released by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin chaired a gathering of a dozen people around a circular table, flanked by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, both widely criticized for hardline commentators.
Putin then showed up at the head of another conference table at the joint task force headquarters, inviting a line of military commanders to make suggestions.
“We will listen to the commanders of each operational directorate and I would like to hear their proposals on our immediate and medium-term actions,” Putin said.
Surovikin was also shown attending the meetings in still photographs on the Kremlin website.
Putin spent all of Friday at the headquarters of the working group, his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, told the Interfax news agency.
No other details of Putin’s visit or the location of the headquarters were reported.