dpa
Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin has again visited the military command centre in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don for an update on operations in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Flanked by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Putin was shown new weapons and technology and briefed on overall progress in the "special military operation” launched in February 2022, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov did not provide further details of the visit, which came a day after Putin met in Kazakhstan with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for talks on closer military cooperation.
According to official data, this is the fifth time that the Russian president met his top commanders in the southern military district, the last time being on October 20.
The Kremlin also says that Putin, 71, has visited the war zone itself.
More than 20 months after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has defended its much-criticized practice of releasing convicted criminals from prison for military service.
"The convicts, including serious criminals, pay for their crime with blood on the battlefield,” Peskov said on Friday according to the Interfax agency.
In Russia, there is a classic pardon procedure, in which a prisoner’s application must be approved in several steps.
But there is a second get-out-of-prison card, Peskov noted.
"The second way is that they pay their debt in blood.” During the war’s first year in 2022, it was well known that the Russian mercenary force Wagner had massively recruited criminals from prisons.
A few months ago, the regular army’s recruitment of criminals was also legalized by law.
Lithuania handed over launchers and other equipment for the NASAMS air defence system to Kiev on Friday, according to the Ministry of Defence in Vilnius.
Anti-drone technology and generators were also delivered. "We listen to Ukraine’s needs and call on our allies to listen to them too,” Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas was quoted as saying in a statement.
Anusauskas travelled to Ukraine unannounced on Friday and met President Volodymyr Zelensky and his counterpart Rustem Umerov in Kiev. "We spoke about crucial support to Ukraine,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Zelensky thanked the Baltic EU and NATO country for its support on X: "I appreciate Lithuania’s military, political, and completely genuine popular support for Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
According to estimates by the Ministry of Defence, Lithuania has provided more than Euro1 billion ($1.07 billion) in aid since the start of the Russian war in February 2022, equivalent to more than 1.2% of the country’s economic output. Around half of this was military aid.
Using extensive supplies of Western weapons, Ukraine is trying to liberate its four eastern and southern regions illegally annexed but only partially controlled by Russia - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya - and to recapture the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
According to Western experts, Ukraine has fallen well short of its own goals in the counteroffensive launched in June.
Recently, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny spoke of "trench warfare.” Putin has repeatedly described Ukraine’s counteroffensive as a "failure.”
Ukraine reported a new wave of Russian drone attacks, with air defences active around the capital Kiev late on Friday evening, the local military administration announced on Telegram.
There was initially no information about possible casualties or damage.
People were called upon to seek shelter in basements and other safe shelters.
Drone attacks were also reported from other parts of the country, including Kharkiv in the east and Kherson in the south.
Meanwhile, according to official Ukrainian reports, the Black Sea region of Odessa was bombarded with rockets on Friday evening. At least three people were injured.
Among the victims was a 96-year-old woman who was rescued from the rubble of her house, military governor Oleh Kiper wrote.
Ukraine’s military said earlier Friday it had targeted two landing ships with naval drones on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
According to Ukrainian reports, the two Serna-class landing craft that were hit were carrying armoured vehicles. The newspaper Ukrainska Pravda wrote in the afternoon, citing sources in the Ukrainian secret service, that the ships were beyond repair.
The pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported on the missile strike on the Russian barracks early in the morning, citing local residents.
The information could not be independently verified.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported that two drones were shot down over Crimea. However, Moscow authorities have not yet commented on the naval attacks and alleged impact on Russian barracks.
Russia has been waging a full-scale war against Ukraine for more than 20 months. Ukraine is fighting back with Western military aid and has repeatedly declared its intention to recapture Crimea, which was annexed illegally by Russia in 2014.