Russian President Vladimir Putin made another visit to the frontlines in Ukraine on Sunday, stopping at a command center of the Joint Group of Forces where he received updates on recent battlefield gains. During the briefing, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov informed him that Russian forces had fully captured the cities of Pokrovsk and Vovchansk, marking two of the most significant territorial shifts in months.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the visit on Monday, followed by the release of official video footage. The trip adds to a series of frontline appearances by Putin in recent weeks, including visits on November 20 and October 25, signaling his growing involvement in supervising battlefield operations directly.
Gerasimov also reported that Ukrainian troops encircled in Mirnograd, the twin city of Pokrovsk, were beginning to collapse under mounting pressure, with Russian units controlling more than 40 percent of the area. The fall of Pokrovsk represents one of Ukraine’s most severe setbacks of the war. Once the principal logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in Donbas, the city was considered well behind the lines due to its distance of more than 40 miles from the frontline when the conflict began.
The capture of Vovchansk, situated near the Russian border in the Kharkov region, adds another challenge for Ukrainian defenses. Ukrainian forces had held the city since May of last year, when Russian units launched a cross-border assault. Its loss opens the way for Russian forces to potentially move south and cut off what remains of Ukraine’s supply routes from Kharkov, tightening the pressure across the northeastern front.
These developments come as U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, accompanied by Jared Kushner, is set to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday for another round of talks aimed at restarting stalled negotiations to end the war. With the battlefield shifting in Russia’s favor, Putin enters the discussions in a far stronger position than many in Washington may have anticipated at the beginning of the year.