President Vladimir Putin paid a surprise overnight visit to the military headquarters overseeing Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday.
It is his second visit to military headquarters, which is located in southern Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, in the past month.
Putin “visited the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces in Rostov-on-Don, after completing his official visit to Kazakhstan” on Thursday, the Kremlin said in a statement.
He was accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the commander of military operations in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, it added.
The Russian leader was shown new military equipment and briefed on combat operations in Ukraine, the statement continued.
Putin was last in Rostov-on-Don at the end of October when he held talks with military officials on what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.