Putin Complains About Civilian Casualties as Zelensky Heads to U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has complained that Ukrainian forces are inflicting civilian casualties in eastern parts of the country occupied by Russian troops, as his Ukrainian counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky heads to the U.S. to lobby for expanded American support for Kyiv.

Putin met with Denis Pushilin—the acting head of the Kremlin-puppet Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), established in the Ukrainian territory of Donetsk after Russia’s invasion in 2014—at the Kremlin on Tuesday, Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported.

“I call attention to the fact that not a single foreign media outlet or human rights organization has broken the silence on this issue,” Putin said, referring to Ukrainian shelling of areas in Donetsk, including the eponymous city just behind the front line.

“Speaking of those shelling attacks: as I understand, the strikes are directly targeted at residential districts of Donetsk, right?” Putin asked Pushilin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shares a drink with allies after a state awards ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 20, 2022. Putin has complained that Ukrainian forces are inflicting civilian casualties in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops. VALERY SHARIFULIN/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

Putin did not acknowledge the tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian forces since February. Nor did he mention the alleged war crimes committed by his forces across occupied Ukrainian territory, with thousands thought to have been tortured, disappeared or executed. The Kremlin denies that any atrocities have taken place despite significant evidence for them.

In addition, more than 1 million Ukrainians—including hundreds of thousands of children—have been deported to Russia in what Kyiv describes as a genocide.

One of Putin’s justifications for his invasion of Ukraine is to protect the Russian-speaking population in the east of the country, which the Kremlin and its propaganda outlets have long claimed are being oppressed by Kyiv and wish to join Russia.

Opinion polls and voting patterns suggest a more nuanced picture, and Putin is unlikely to have won many new supporters in the eastern Donbas region, which has borne the brunt of his invasion.

Pushilin told Putin that recent artillery strikes had killed 21 civilians and injured 94 more between December 2 and 18, in the cities of Donetsk, Makeyevka and Gorlovka.

Pushilin—who became acting head of the separatist authority after the assassination of his predecessor Alexander Zakharchenko in 2018—claimed that Moscow, the DNR and the Kremlin-aligned Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) had tried “to resolve the conflict peacefully” since 2014, adding: “Europe and the West cannot be trusted.”

Pushilin and Putin both expressed anger at former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent comments, in which she told Die Zeit that the Minsk accords that paused the fighting in Ukraine in 2014 were designed to buy Ukraine time in which it could rearm.

“They said they were not planning to honor any commitments, that they signed documents only to win time, [and] rearm Ukraine,” Putin said.

The Russian president also met with LPR chief Leonid Pasechnik, describing the situation in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast as “very tense.”

A member of the Ukrainian 110 Separate Mechanized Brigade rides in the back of a pickup truck while patrolling the streets of Avdiivka on December 20, 2022 in Donetsk Region, Ukraine. Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Putin awarded medals to both Pushilin and Pasechnik, as well as top Kremlin allies including propagandist Margarita Simonyan, the head of the puppet authority in occupied Zaporizhzhia, Yevgeny Balitsky and the head of the puppet authority in occupied Kherson, Vladimir Saldo. The latter recently fled the city of Kherson shortly before its liberation by Ukrainian troops.

Zelensky, meanwhile, visited the front line city of Bakhmut; the hottest part of the front in recent weeks, which Russian forces—led by Wagner Group mercenaries—are trying to capture.

Zelensky met troops that have been fighting in difficult conditions, describing them as “heroic people” and urging them to “preserve your persistence.” The president added: “History only remembers the victors, the strong and the brave.”

Soon after, Zelensky set off for the U.S. where he will meet President Joe Biden and address Congress on Wednesday.