Putin visits Luzhniki stadium to attend concert honoring members of special operation

©Sergei Bobylev/TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday, where the ‘Glory to Defenders of the Motherland’ concert honoring participants in the special military operation was being held.

Going up on stage, the president shook hands with the service members who are taking part in the special military operation in Ukraine.

Activists from youth and patriotic organizations take part in the event. The audience is expected to reach up to 200,000 people.

Putin from the Luzhniki stage congratulated the Defender of the Fatherland Day, sang the anthem together with everyone and greeted the officers

This is not the first time that Putin has attended a major concert marking milestone events. In 2022, he addressed an audience of people who had come to Red Square for a concert celebrating the new regions joining Russia. Luzhniki Stadium traditionally hosts festivities for the anniversary of Crimea’s reunification with Russia (March 18), where the president usually delivers a speech.

Special operation, February 22. Main

▪️Russian forces continue their offensive in the Donetsk direction, in the Kupyansky, Krasnolimansky, Donetsk and Yuzhno-Donetsk directions, the losses of Kyiv amounted to about 500 soldiers per day, the Russian Defense Ministry said;

▪️The head of the main intelligence department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Kirill Budanov, expects that decisive battles in Ukraine will take place from mid to late spring;

▪️Adviser to the Acting Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, Yan Gagin, said that Ukrainian troops are likely to surrender Artemovsk soon;

▪️Putin held talks with Wang Yi, including discussing the Ukrainian settlement. Wang Yi said that China appreciates the readiness of the Russian Federation to resolve the Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and negotiations, and intends to play a constructive role in the political settlement of the crisis;

▪️At the meeting between Lavrov and Wang Yi, the so-called Chinese settlement plan for Ukraine was not discussed, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The plan will be made public in the coming days, said Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the UN;

▪️Ukraine intends this week to request Turkey and the UN to start negotiations on extending the grain deal, wants to extend the agreement for at least another year and include more Ukrainian ports, Deputy Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Vaskov said;

▪️The EU failed to agree on another package of sanctions against Russia, negotiations on this issue will continue on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing four diplomatic sources.