Anger in Kyiv as Putin visits Ukraine frontline regions

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin had visited two frontline regions in Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to brand it a tour of the scenes of Russian “crimes”.

Moscow portrayed the trip as a marker of its control in occupied Ukraine, but Russia does not fully hold those areas despite claiming them after a widely-condemned annexation.

Mr. Putin’s visit to Kherson and Lugansk, which was only made public a day after it happened, came as China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu was in Moscow to demonstrate what he called Beijing’s “determination” to stronger Russia ties.

Moscow has been seeking allies to confront the West as its war in Ukraine causes immense destruction and suffering but has not neared Mr. Putin’s goal of capturing control of the country.

“The President is now visiting the new regions more and more often,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding it is “absolutely important” that Mr. Putin as supreme commander-in-chief of Russia’s armed forces “gets information on the spot”.

The Kremlin chief’s February 2022 invasion triggered the largest conflict in Europe since World War II, with Ukrainian forces now expected to be preparing a spring counter-offensive.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, called Mr. Putin’s trip “a ‘special tour’ of the mass murders’ author”, adding he went to Ukraine’s occupied territories “to enjoy the crimes of his minions for the last time.”

After Mr. Putin’s visit was made public on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had shelled the centre of the city of Kherson, killing one person and injuring nine.

Last week a Russian strike on a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk killed 15, including a two-year-old boy, and wounded 24.

Russia was beaten back in northern and southern regions last year and Moscow’s forces have made only incremental gains in eastern Ukraine.

Much of the fighting is now concentrated around the eastern town of Bakhmut which has become the longest and bloodiest battle of the conflict.

During his trip to Ukraine, Mr. Putin met Russian military commanders and discussed the situation on several fronts of the pro-Western country, the Kremlin said.

According to video footage released by the Kremlin, neither Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu nor Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, accompanied Mr. Putin.

Mr. Putin’s spokesman Mr. Peskov said it was not “rational” for all the top military commanders to “gather in one place” and both Mr. Shoigu and Mr. Gerasimov participated in the meetings remotely.