The Russian president said that soldiers and officers defending the people of Donbass are heroes and should be treated as such.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu visited some of the soldiers wounded during the conflict in Ukraine on Wednesday. After visiting the Central Military Hospital in Moscow, Putin said all of the troops deployed abroad and the families of the fallen should be compensated.
Putin s schedule allowed him to visit in person this time, according to a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said that the president has been personally involved in overseeing all assistance to Russian servicemen.
Many of the photos and videos shared on social media show Putin and Shoigu, dressed in white overcoats, speaking with medical staff and wounded soldiers, many of whom said they would like to return to the fight.
In one video, a scout who was wounded in the stomach told Putin he d like to get back to his unit, and the president said he would make it happen.
Putin remembers the name of a wounded soldier's son and tells him that he will be proud of his father.
Putin said the payments to troops serving across the border should be increased, after meeting with the state council on social issues later in the day.
The ruble is strengthening, so you need to recalculate all this and make payments accordingly because everything is tied to the exchange rate, as you know, the dollar is shrinking, and the ruble is strengthening. The president explained that this did not apply only to soldiers' wages, but also to payments to the wounded, families of the killed, housing allowances and other social issues.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied that it was planning to retake the two republics by force.