“The situation in the People’s Republics of Donetsk, Lugansk and in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions is extremely difficult,” said Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday conceded that the situation in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine that Moscow says should be annexed without fully conquering them is “extremely difficult”. “The situation in the People’s Republics of Donetsk, Lugansk and in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions is extremely difficult,” said Vladimir Putin.
He spoke in a video aimed at employees of the Security Services (FSB), Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and Protection of Senior Officials (FSO), who are celebrating their annual “professional holiday” in Russia on December 20. Vladimir Putin praised the work of the members of the Russian security services operating in “the new regions of Russia” and assured that “the people living there, the Russian citizens” depend on the “protection” of these services.
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The head of the Kremlin, himself a former agent of the Soviet secret service (KGB), called for a “maximum concentration” of counterintelligence. “It is necessary to strictly suppress the actions of foreign intelligence services and effectively identify traitors, spies and saboteurs,” Vladimir Putin stressed.
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In September, the Russian president announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson) partially controlled by the Russian army after conducting local “referendums” that Kyiv and the West have described as fictitious became.
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But in November Ukraine retook Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name, a major setback for Moscow after weeks of a counter-offensive and actions by Ukrainian partisans behind enemy lines.