On Dec. 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to a Russian military command post in the special military operation (SMO) zone, dressed in full military fatigues, where he received a report by Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, the President’s website reported. While Putin has conducted a number of such high-profile meetings with his General Staff over the recent months, the message, coming just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, was unmistakable.
Putin also heard reports from the commanders of the Centre and East forces, as well as unit commanders, on the progress of their missions. It is claimed that the towns of Dimitrov in Donetsk and Gulyaipole in Zaporozhye Region have been liberated. Gulyaipole is the second largest city in the Zaporozhye Region, and hence its liberation opens up good prospects for an offensive, explained TASS.
But the remarks by President Putin were the most significant element from the meeting. After hearing all the reports from his commanders, Putin concluded the publicly recorded part of the event with an unmistakable message (according to machine translation): “Now we see that intelligent people have also emerged in the West who are recommending that the Kyiv authorities accept decent terms for ending the conflict and are offering good basic conditions for ensuring Ukraine’s long-term security, conditions for restoring relations with the Russian Federation, and restoring Ukraine’s economy.
