Putin Sounds Out Military Commanders on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) during his visit to the joint headquarters of the military branches of the Russian armed forces involved in the "special military operation" in Ukraine, at an undisclosed location in Russia, 17 December 2022. (EPA/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) during his visit to the joint headquarters of the military branches of the Russian armed forces involved in the "special military operation" in Ukraine, at an undisclosed location in Russia, 17 December 2022. (EPA/Sputnik/Kremlin)
TT
20

Putin Sounds Out Military Commanders on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) during his visit to the joint headquarters of the military branches of the Russian armed forces involved in the "special military operation" in Ukraine, at an undisclosed location in Russia, 17 December 2022. (EPA/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) during his visit to the joint headquarters of the military branches of the Russian armed forces involved in the "special military operation" in Ukraine, at an undisclosed location in Russia, 17 December 2022. (EPA/Sputnik/Kremlin)

President Vladimir Putin has sought proposals from his armed forces commanders on how they think Russia's military campaign in Ukraine should proceed, during a visit to the operation's headquarters, the Kremlin said on Saturday. 

A series of defeats in 10 months of fighting, resulting in Russian withdrawals from areas around the capital Kyiv and Ukraine's second city Kharkiv and most recently from the city of Kherson, have forced Putin to call up reservists and generated rare public criticism from military bloggers and some allies. 

Since the appointment in October of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin to lead the campaign, Russian ground forces have focused more on defense than attack, while waves of air strikes on cities have left millions of Ukrainian civilians without heat, light or water for days on end as winter sets in. 

In video footage released by the Kremlin on Saturday, Putin presided at a meeting of around a dozen people at a circular table, flanked by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov - both of whom have been heavily criticized by hawkish commentators. 

Putin was then shown at the head of another conference table at the joint task force headquarters, inviting suggestions from a row of military commanders. 

"We will listen to the commanders in each operational direction, and I would like to hear your proposals on our immediate and medium-term actions," Putin said. 

Surovikin was also shown attending the meetings in still photographs on the Kremlin website. 

Putin spent the whole of Friday at the task force headquarters, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax news agency. 

No other details of Putin's visit or the location of the headquarters were reported. 



Macron Speeds up Rafale Warplane Orders as France Invests in Nuclear Deterrence

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Macron Speeds up Rafale Warplane Orders as France Invests in Nuclear Deterrence

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of a Dassault Rafale (R) and A Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft during his visit of the French Air and Space Force (Armee de l'air et de l'espace) Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Airbase in Saint-Sauveur, north-eastern France on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

President Emmanuel Macron said France would order additional Rafale warplanes in the coming years and invest nearly 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) into one of its air bases to equip its squadrons with the latest nuclear missile technology.

Jolted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's more confrontational stance towards traditional Western allies, European countries are hiking defense spending and seeking to reduce dependence on the United States.

Macron, who has initiated a doubling of the French defense budget over the course of his two mandates, has recently set an even higher target, saying the country should increase defense spending to 3-3.5% of economic output from the current 2%.

He has also offered to extend the protection of France's nuclear weapons, the so-called nuclear umbrella, to other European countries.

"We haven't waited for 2022 or the turning point we're seeing right now to discover that the world we live in is ever more dangerous, ever more uncertain, and that it implies to innovate, to bulk up and to become more autonomous," he said.

"I will announce in the coming weeks new investments to go further than what was done over the past seven years," he told soldiers at one of the country's historical air bases in Luxeuil, eastern France.

Macron said he had decided to turn the base, famed in military circles as the home of American volunteer pilots during World War One, into one of its most advanced bases in its nuclear deterrence program.

The base will host the latest Rafale S5 fighter jets, which will carry France's next-generation ASN4G hypersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which are intended to be operational from 2035 onwards, French officials said.

The French air force will also receive additional Dassault-made Rafale warplanes, in part to replace the Mirage jets France has transferred to Ukraine, Macron said.

"We are going to increase and accelerate our orders for Rafales," he said.

French officials said the 1.5 billion euros were part of the already approved multi-year military spending plan. It remained unclear how France would finance a massive hike in military spending at a time it is trying to reduce its budget deficit.

Macron's speech comes on the day the German parliament approved a massive increase in military spending.