Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an unannounced visit to the besieged city of Bakhmut, meeting with troops and handing out awards.
Bakhmut has faced months of bombardment and has suffered a lot of damage as a key target for Russia in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. So far Ukrainian forces have held back Russia’s advance.
It comes as the Vladimir Putin, has admitted the situation in four areas of Ukraine that Moscow has sought to annex was proving tough. "The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult," the Russian president said in a video address to security workers.
Elsewhere, new footage shows Putin likely trying to “deflect responsibility” for failures in the war in Ukraine.
The UK Ministry of Defence shared how Putin was filmed on 16 December “meeting with a number of senior military officers including Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov”.
It added how the “choreographed” meeting was likely intended to “demonstrate collective responsibility for the special military operation” and “deflect Putin’s responsibility for military failure, high fatality rates and increasing public disatisfaction from mobilisation”.
On the war front lines, a Russian artillery offensive struck 25 towns and villages around Bakhmut, along with Avdiivka and another northeastern town, Kupiansk.
