You will fight again, Putin tells veteran, as he hails ‘heroes’
Russian leader reassures wounded soldier he will ‘definitely’ return to battle, in contrived hospital visit
VLADIMIR PUTIN told a Russian soldier wounded in Ukraine he will “definitely” return to the front line, in a carefully stage-managed hospital visit.
In his first meeting with troops who have fought in Ukraine, the Russian president quizzed officers about their wounds and families but stopped short of specifically discussing the war.
Mr Putin has made surprise visits to Chechnya to meet troops fighting separatist insurgents in the 2000s and to Syria to see Russian personnel at a military base.
This time, Mr Putin, who has spent most of the past two years isolated from the outside world, visited a military hospital in Moscow, where bodyguards in white coats were lurking in corridors.
After a hospital official told him that one of the wounded troops was eager to join up again, Mr Putin asked the man from the North Caucasus if he really intended to keep serving.
When the man replied “Of course, I do,” Mr Putin, dressed in a white coat over his suit, said: “You definitely will.”
The injured men appeared tense and stood to attention at their hospital beds dressed in pyjamas. They were reportedly recovering from shrapnel and gunshot wounds but did not display any obvious injuries typical of troops injured in war zones.
Mr Putin did not ask the men about their experience on the battlefield or comment on the hostilities.
The Russian military has not updated its official death toll since March but British defence chiefs said this week that it was “likely” Russia has lost as many troops in the three months of war in Ukraine as the Soviet Union did in nine years of fighting in Afghanistan.
During a government meeting later yesterday, Mr Putin described his troops in Ukraine as heroes:
“Those people have risked their lives and health for the sake of the people and children of the Donbas and for the sake of Russia. They all are heroes,” he said.
A few hours earlier, he signed a decree to fast-track Russian citizenship for the residents of two Russia-occupied Ukrainian regions in a surprise move that is likely to harm the chance of peace talks with Ukraine.
The Russian leader at the start of the invasion of Ukraine three months ago insisted that Moscow had no plans to occupy any parts of the neighbouring country. His spokesman has since said Russia would first ask the residents of those regions about what they want before making any decisions.
The Kremlin published a decree yesterday that streamlines applications for Russian citizenship for Ukrainians from Kherson and Zaporizhzhya, two regions in the south that have been under Russian control since the start of the war.
Earlier yesterday, Vladimir Rogova, self-proclaimed official of the Russiacontrolled administration of the Zaporizhzhya region, said: “Zaporizhzhya can have only one future – as part of Russia.”
After Mr Putin’s announcement, Mr Rogov said his office was gearing up to issue Russian passports. “It’s a hectic task but a joyful one,” he said.
Yesterday, Russia fired cruise missiles at targets in the capital of Zaporizhzhya, which is still under Ukrainian control. The attack destroyed Ukraine’s major aircraft engine factory and a shopping mall, killing one person and injuring three more people.
In the neighbouring Kherson region, a self-appointed head of the administration set up by the Russian occupation forces said it had started accepting applications for Russian passports.