The Kremlin announced on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with those responsible for the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said in a statement that “the president spent a whole day in the residence on Friday Forces participating in the special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Russian president held a “meeting” there, attended by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. He also held “separate meetings with leaders” of the various branches of the Russian military involved in the operation, according to the same source.
“I would like to hear your suggestions regarding our short- and medium-term moves,” Putin said during the meeting, footage of which was broadcast on Saturday by Russian television.
This announcement comes while Ukraine was targeted with Russian rocket attacks on Friday New ones have caused power outages across the country, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Return services in Kyiv
Against this background, Vitaliy Klitschko, mayor of the Ukrainian capital, said early this morning that the city’s metro network was back in service and the water supply was reconnected to all residents, one day after the latest wave of airstrikes Russians on critical infrastructure.
Ukrainian officials said Russia fired more than 70 missiles on Friday In one of its largest attacks since the start of its military operation on February 24, it led to an emergency power outage across the country.
Klitschko also said that heating has been restored to half of Kiev’s population, while electricity has been restored to a third of the capital’s districts.
He wrote on the “Telegram” application: “But the periodic interruptions are applied in case of emergency, because the electricity deficit is high”.
Earlier this month, Klitschko warned of an “end of the world” scenario in the Ukrainian capital if Russian air strikes on infrastructure continued, but also said there was no need to evacuate people just yet. “We are fighting and doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he told Reuters on Dec. 7.
Kiev residents took refuge in subway stations yesterday to protect themselves from shelling
Zaporizhya talks ‘impossible’
In another context, Russia’s representative in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said today that direct talks between Russia, Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the establishment of a protection zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant are “impossible”, given the current state of relations between Moscow and Kiev.
“Progress on this issue could have been faster if tripartite talks had been held, but this is impossible due to the current state of Russian-Ukrainian relations,” Ulyanov told Russia’s TASS news agency.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of bombing Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, while the IAEA stresses the need to neutralize it and establish a safe zone around it.