MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. The military command was not informed until the last minute that Russian President Vladimir Putin would personally show up to meetings of the Dnepr and East battlegroups in the zone of the special military operation, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Tuesday.

According to him, Putin’s visit to the Kherson Region and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) was not planned ahead of time. "The commanders were called to a video conference meeting, and they were not aware that Putin would appear in person until the last moment," the Kremlin official said.

Peskov explained that the head of state visited the headquarters in person "so that officers would not be taken away from commanding troops by travelling to Moscow." "After the meeting, they returned at once to their immediate work on the ground," Putin’s press secretary added.

On Monday, Putin visited the headquarters of the Dnepr battlegroup on the Kherson front and the headquarters of the National Guard East battlegroup in the LPR. During his visit, the head of state heard reports from military commanders on the situation on the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Lugansk fronts.