Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk regions which are partly held by Russia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

Putin attended a military command meeting in the Kherson region to hear reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the “Dnieper” army group and other senior officers on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia.

Russian troops retreated from Kherson, the regional capital, last November, and have been reinforcing their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro river in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Putin has also visited national guard headquarters in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, another part of Ukraine which Moscow annexed last year.

The Kremlin did not say when Putin attended the meetings.

By Reuters