Important signal: Putin visited frontline regions
President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin visited the headquarters of the Dnepr group of troops in the Kherson direction and the headquarters of the Vostok National Guard in the LPR.
This was reported by the PolitNavigator correspondent on the official website of the Kremlin.
“During the meeting at the headquarters of the Dnepr group of troops, the situation in the Kherson and Zaporozhye directions was discussed. The President heard reports from the commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel-General Mikhail Teplinsky, the commander of the Dnepr group of troops, Colonel-General Oleg Makarevich and other military leaders,” the message says.
At the same time, at the headquarters of the Vostok National Guard in the LPR, Vladimir Putin received reports from Colonel General Alexander Lapin and other senior officers on the situation in this direction.
In addition, the head of state congratulated the military personnel on Easter and donated copies of icons to them.
Putin visited the Kherson region for the first time. This was his second trip to new regions. In March he visited Mariupol.
“President Putin’s trips to the Kherson region and the Lugansk People’s Republic, as well as meetings at the Dnepr and Vostok headquarters, were not prepared in advance,” says presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
Anti-Russian propagandists claim that Putin’s visit took place before Easter. They draw this conclusion based on the words of the president, who, presenting the icon to the military, says:
“Now it’s Easter, right?”
However, Peskov says that the visit took place on March 17. According to him, some seized on one of the phrases and began to put forward “erroneous hypotheses.”
“It was yesterday [April 17]. Indeed, what did the president say when he presented the icon? That Easter is here. But the fact is that Easter lasts 40 days, it is celebrated, and now, especially, is Easter week,” Peskov explained today in a comment to RIA Novosti.
The military-analytical telegram channel “Rybar”, assessing the president’s visit, draws attention to who exactly Putin met with.
“Putin publicly visited the Kherson region, where - publicly, at least - neither Defense Minister Shoigu nor Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov visited. Kremlin press releases place special emphasis on the commander of the Airborne Forces Teplinsky and the chief of staff of the Ground Forces Lapin. Both went on “vacation”, tantamount to resignation, due to disagreement with the course of the SVO and the decisions made. Both were returned - and most likely, against the wishes of Shoigu and Gerasimov.
Lapin commands the group of troops of the National Guard "East" in the LPR - a structural formation of the Russian Guard. Not only is this a confirmation of Lapin’s return to the North Military District zone, but it is also a transfer of him to another group with other tasks. Whether this means that Lapin was sent there for reinforcement or because it was to avoid conflicts with the leadership of the Moscow Region is unclear.
The visit of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the eve of the Ukrainian counter-offensive is a step designed to inspire personnel before the start of full-scale hostilities,” Rybar believes.
According to political scientist Sergei Melnichuk, the visit of Russian President Putin to the Kherson and Luhansk regions showed that the potential Ukrainian counter-offensive is taken seriously.
“I do not agree that vigilance is being dulled, because the Ukrainian “counter-offensive”, which is not clear when to expect, but, nevertheless, it is an event for which they are preparing quite thoroughly, and, in fact, the visit The president’s position in the Kherson region and the LPR is connected precisely with a very serious attitude towards this kind of possible development of events,” Melnichuk said on Radio Crimea.
In his opinion, the president obviously wants to develop the most effective ways to counter any possible threats from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“And so he decided, as I assume, to see personally what the general situation is in the regions where hostilities are taking place and to assess what necessary measures can be quickly taken now, perhaps to formulate some approaches in the event of potential threats arising. That is, in my opinion, this is a completely rational step, dictated precisely by the fact that it was decided not to dull vigilance, so to speak.”
He believes that Putin’s visit “will have a psychological impact on both sides of the contact line – for the Russian army this is unambiguous support, for the Ukrainian army it is a propaganda fiasco.”
I think that this visit is important not only from a practical point of view, because I assume that it is really important for people who are in the combat zone to realize that the entire structure of the Armed Forces, including the Commander-in-Chief, is currently working coherently and focused to implement the assigned tasks, and of course this should convey some kind of emotional positive coloring,” the expert believes.
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