Putin and top military leaders visit southern military headquarters to assess his war in Ukraine

By The Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited his southern military headquarters as he assesses the state of his country’s forces in Ukraine as the war drags on toward winter. It was Putin’s second public visit to the headquarters in less than a month. He was accompanied by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff. After almost 21 months of fighting in Ukraine, both Russia and Ukraine’s military resources have been significantly eroded. As winter comes, the fighting is likely to further settle into attritional warfare. Around the same time that Putin was visiting his southern military headquarters, Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine.