Putin visited local Russian headquarters in Kherson and Luhansk. “In the movies you can see him coming down from a helicopter, greeting a number of high-ranking soldiers and sitting with them for a while,” says Wijninga, a defense specialist at the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague. “He’s handing out presents and apparently inquiring about the situation.”
Putin hands out gifts and is apparently briefed on the situation
“Apparently,” because there is a lot of discussion online about whether Putin was actually there. “On Twitter and Telegram, some say it’s old footage, others say a doppelgänger is involved.”
Zelensky in turn traveled to Avdiivka, a small town near the front line in the east of the country. Pictures of this show how the warehouse where he speaks has been reinforced with sandbags.
Putin will go to the headquarters to the fullest
Wijninga thinks the timing of the visits is purely coincidental. “Zelensky had however started these visits long before Putin.” Also, the nature of the visits is very different, says the defense specialist. ‘You see in those movies that Putin is not really at the front. At most, he’s there talking to some high-ranking character. He doesn’t salute the soldiers on the spot. Zelensky does. He goes much closer to the front.’
Putin had previously been criticized for staying away from the front for a long time, unlike Zelensky. “I think Putin is now trying to imitate him a bit. He wants to show his supporters of him: look, they are here now. And these types of films are then widely distributed in Russia.’
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