An “important” military meeting for Putin and Zelensky in eastern Ukraine

And he said The Kremlin In a statement thatVladimir Putin An expanded meeting of the Ministry of Defense will be held (…) The results of the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in 2022 will be presented, and the tasks for the next year will be defined.

He added that the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu In particular, he will participate in this meeting with the aim of “presenting the progress of the special military operation” in Ukraine and the process of supplying arms shipments to combat forces.

The same source indicated that about 15,000 officials in the Russian army will participate in this event via video technology.

This meeting comes after Putin changed his traditional press conference at the end of the year, noting that he had been doing so since 2001.

and was exposed Russia Which began in February a massive attack on Ukraineto major military setbacks in recent months, which forced it to withdraw from the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine and from the city of Kherson in the south.

Putin acknowledged, on Tuesday, that the situation is “extremely difficult” in 4 regions of southern and eastern Ukraine that Moscow had previously announced annexation, although it does not fully control them.

Last year also saw the mobilization of 300,000 Russian reservists, but this process was punctuated by abuses and mistakes that prompted thousands of them to flee the country.

Zelensky in eastern Ukraine

For his part, the Ukrainian President sent Volodymyr Zelensky A message of the failure of the Russian invasion by visiting a town on the front line that Moscow had long tried to seize without success, according to British media.

A video recording of the Ukrainian president showed him visiting Bakhmut city East of the country, Tuesday, where one of the fiercest battles took place in the past few weeks, wearing military uniform and distributing medals to the soldiers amid loud applause.

Zelinsky wrote via Telegram: “The East is steadfast because Bakhmut is in a state of fighting. In the midst of fierce battles and at the cost of many lives, all of our freedom is being defended here.”

Earlier, Zelensky renewed his calls to supply arms to his country after it was struck Russian drones Energy targets in Russia’s third air strike on Ukrainian energy facilities within 6 days.