President Vladimir Putin today visited a field command post of the Russian forces fighting on the front line of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In the first such meeting since November and December 2025, Putin was greeted at an auxiliary command post of the Joint Group of Forces by Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov. He took an in-depth report from Gerasimov on Russian gains “on the ground” during the past six months, as well as the results of Russia’s aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s military industry and infrastructure.
Putin himself again summarized the battleground situation as he had described it in his June 28 interview with Pavel Zarubin on Rossiya-1 TV. This time he emphasized that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are retreating “with great losses.” Territory occupied by Russian forces this year in the Donbass and Novorossiya (meaning, in this context, the four regions that have joined the Russian Federation) totals more than 3,000 sq km, he said.
Gerasimov, reviewing each sector of the front in greater detail, announced that the Russians have now fully taken Konstantinovka, a town on the Donbass Arc. This Konstantinovka-Druzhovka-Kramatorsk-Slavyansk urban area (now largely depopulated), which extends along the Krivoy Torets and Kazyonny Torets Rivers, is the so-called “fortress belt,” heavily fortified by Kiev’s forces since 2014; taking over the full agglomeration will nearly complete Russia’s control of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Russian commanders in Konstantinovka were patched into the meeting remotely, to give reports and show drone footage of the now largely destroyed city.
Both Putin and Gerasimov challenged the “Ukraine is winning” propaganda line in the West. Gerasimov said, “In the absence of results on the ground, the Kiev regime is trying to convince its Western sponsors that they have seized the initiative from us and made significant advances on the battlefield,” by labelling territory taken by Russia as “in the gray zone.” Putin added that Kiev, lacking on-the-ground progress, is attacking civilian targets in Russia to back up its propaganda about having the upper hand. The goal of both Kiev and “the so-called European supposed peacemakers,” he said, “is not peace, but to continue the war with Russia to the last Ukrainian.” Therefore, he said, the air campaign to disable or destroy Ukraine’s military-industrial complex should continue.
Regarding the buffer zone Russia is creating in Ukraine along its border with Russia, Putin said that “the more strikes the enemy tries to make against our civilian targets, … the greater the security zone we will need to create on adjacent territory,” even as Russia improves defenses to protect these objects and the lives of civilians. He warned that Russia should be prepared for small-group terrorist attacks inside Russia, “designed to reinforce the legends and lies” about AFU advances.
The Russian President made a request for intelligence that bodes ill for Kiev’s sponsors: “Analysis should be continued of every instigator of continuing the war in Ukraine—an analysis of the extent of involvement of each of them in actual combat. We need this analysis for possible responsible decision-making in the future. In any event, we may need this.”
The President and the General Staff officers went on to hold a second, smaller conference, which was not made public. An official English transcript of the public part is expected here July 4.
