Putin meets top generals in charge of Russia's war efforts in Ukraine

Reuters:  President Vladimir Putin visited the headquarters of the command of the Russian operation in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Saturday, indicating that the meeting took place after Ukraine announced successes in the counteroffensive on the southeastern front.

"Vladimir Putin held a meeting at the headquarters of the special military task force in Rostov-on-Don," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia, which launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calls its actions a special military operation.

The Kremlin added that Putin, Russia's supreme commander-in-chief, had listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces responsible for Moscow's operations in Ukraine, and other top military commanders and officers.

The meeting came after Ukraine, whose counteroffensive to recapture lands seized by Russia in the first months of the war was slower than expected, said it had liberated a small village along the front line for the first time since July.

The Kremlin did not provide any additional details about the meeting, and it was unclear when it took place. Videos published by the state news agency RIA show Gerasimov greeting Putin, apparently at night, and leading him into the building after a brief handshake.

Gerasimov, who has rarely been seen in public in recent months, has been the object of sharp criticism from the leader of the Wagner mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and some Russian military bloggers because of Russia's failures in the war.

Rostov-on-Don, a city just 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the border with Ukraine, is the birthplace of the command of the Southern Military District of Russia, whose army is fighting in Ukraine.

With Ukraine's counteroffensive trying to break through Russia's fortified positions, as well as Moscow's limited military resources and disagreements in the ranks, both sides measured recent successes by taking control of tiny villages.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian military said it had liberated the small village of Urozhnoye in the Donetsk region, moving forward towards the Sea of Azov to potentially cut the Russian land bridge to Crimea - vital for Moscow's supply routes.