Just a PR stunt by the Kremlin?
It is not clear whether Putin actually spoke to the girl and in fact designed her participation card in the “Wishing Tree” Christmas campaign. It could also be a public relations stunt by the Kremlin to feign interest in the people of the region it occupies in Ukraine.
At the end of September, Moscow troops attacked a convoy of civilian cars with rockets near the city of Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine – dozens of people were killed. Victims of the attack lined up to “find friends and relatives and get help,” Ukraine’s regional administration governor Olexandr Staruch said after the incident.