Dressed head to toe in army fatigues, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday received the news he had been awaiting for more than a year: Russia had taken over the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
It doesn’t matter that Kyiv disputed the claim, saying on Tuesday that fighting was still going on inside the city. The point of the highly choreographed meeting between Putin and his top military brass was to show the world that Russia is winning in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin was informed of the victory during a visit to a “command post” on Sunday, although both were only publicized late on Monday, on the eve of the Russian leader’s meeting with key aides to US President Donald Trump.
…
