Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Wednesday the withdrawal of Russian troops in the occupied Kherson region across the Dnieper River, TASS news agency reported.
Kherson is part of the Ukrainian regions annexed in September by Russia, along with Lugansk, Donetsk and Zaporiyia in a move that was rejected by the international community. Moscow said on Tuesday that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had visited the conflict zone, without further details.
In fact, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported on Wednesday that he was in the Lugansk region, in eastern Ukraine and occupied by Russian forces, as confirmed on Wednesday by Sergei Kiriyenko, a senior official of the Russian Presidency.
Peskov himself said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a visit to the Donbas region, although he specified that «for now there are no specific plans» for it. «I have no doubt that the time will come when Putin will go to the Donbas, of course,» he said.
