For the first time since the outbreak of the war more than a year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin inspected his country's forces on the battle fronts in the Kherson and Luhansk regions, which Moscow recently annexed from Ukraine. And the Kremlin announced today (Tuesday) that Putin visited the headquarters of the Dnipro military forces in the Kherson region, where he met the Russian military deployed there. He visited Lugansk on his first visit to the region located in eastern Ukraine, where he discussed with the soldiers of the Russian National Guard Staff deployed there, according to the Kremlin statement, which did not specify the date of the visit.
The Russian army withdrew from the city of Kherson, the center of the region, in November 2022, to gather its forces from the other side of the Dnipro River.
Last March, the Russian President visited Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and Mariupol, which the Russian army besieged for months and occupied in May 2022.
On September 30, 2022, the Russian President signed a decree to annex 4 regions of Ukraine, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, and Lugansk.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine, followed by international rejection and economic sanctions on Moscow, which stipulates to end its operation that Kiev abandon plans to join military entities, led by NATO, which the latter considers an interference in its sovereignty.
On the other hand, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries warned (Tuesday) that countries that help Russia in its war in Ukraine will pay "heavy prices", in a statement issued after two days of talks in Japan.
The meeting did not announce any new measures against Moscow, but they pledged to intensify the application of sanctions, while warning "the third parties to stop providing aid to Russia in its war, or face paying high prices." The ministers also condemned Russia's threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus, describing it as "unacceptable".
The White House sharply criticized Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for accusing the United States of encouraging the Ukraine war.
Okaz (Moscow) @okaz_online