On the morning of April 18, the Kremlin published a video of Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Kherson region and the LPR, which is fictional by Muscovites. From the analysis of the video it follows that the trip could have taken place last week.
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These words are spoken by the Kremlin shorty on the initial video of the Kremlin. Almost immediately, the video was replaced, according to Agency. News”.
The posted video begins with the tracks coming out of the helicopter, which is standing with the engine already off. There is no tail number on board the helicopter. Then, in the back seat of a Japanese Toyota Land Cruiser off-road vehicle, the Russian president drives to Genichesk Crimea, located about 40 km from the border. The cortege passes along the stele, which stands at the entrance to the city from the side of the village of Novoalekseevka.
From the video, it may seem that Putin flew to Genichesk by helicopter. However, the footage shown later of Putin’s departure from the city may indicate that he traveled by helicopter only on the territory of Crimea, and in the Kherson region he drove by car.
The footage of Putin’s departure shows the Chongar Hotel, located right on the border with Crimea. Several helicopters are circling over the hotel. After these frames in the official chronicle of the Kremlin there are frames taken from a helicopter.
Colonel-General Oleg Makarevich, commander of the Dnepr grouping, meets the President of Genii. On the footage of the meeting, you can see the number of one of the cars in the presidential motorcade – 202-99. Previously, the number has already appeared on the forum dedicated to special series car numbers used by the authorities. He was met in UAZ Patriot and Renault Logan cars.
Accompanied by Makarevich, Putin passes into a room with the inscription “Group of Forces” Dnepr “”. References to this grouping of troops began to appear in publications a few months ago, but so far nothing has been reported about its commander.
From the message on the Kremlin website, it follows that Putin also heard a report from the commander of the Airborne Forces, Mikhail Teplinsky. This refutes the claims of military correspondents that Teplinsky was removed from his post in January, and Makarevich took his place. On the published video of the way, he asks Teplinsky to personally report to him about the situation at the front.
This is followed by footage from a room with tiled walls, where Putin handed the military a copy of the icon that belonged to “one of the most successful defense ministers of the Russian army in the 19th century.” Andrei Medvedev, an employee of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, suggested that it was about Count Dmitry Milyutin.
When handing over the icon, Putin says: “Now Easter will be here, right?”
In 2023, Easter was celebrated on April 16, and the head of state attended the Easter service at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the night of April 15-16. These words of Putin allow us to conclude that the meeting took place until April 16 (April 18, Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin visited the occupied Kherson region and on April 17 – “Rakurs”). In the video posted on the Kremlin website, the word will be cut out. It also disappeared from the video in the telegram channel of the presidential press service.
After that, the path ended up, as reported, in the Luhansk region. In these frames, the head of the Russian state is dressed in different clothes (a black turtleneck instead of a shirt and tie). Here he meets with Colonel General Alexander Lapin in a room with the inscription “Group of troops (forces)” Vostok ” of the troops of the national guard of the Russian Federation.” This meeting confirmed the report that Lapin was returned to the front in April.
Putin’s meeting with Lapin may indicate a strengthening of the positions of the Ministry of Defense and a weakening of the positions of the founder of Wagner CHIK, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. It was they who insisted on the removal of Lapin from the post of commander of the Center grouping after the surrender of Liman.
The Kremlin reported that Putin’s trips to the annexed territories were not prepared in advance.
This is the second message about Putin’s alleged visit to the temporarily occupied territories. For the first time, he allegedly went to the Donbass a month ago: according to the Kremlin and Peskov’s statement, on the evening of March 18, he visited Mariupol.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.