Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Tuesday that the situation is "extremely difficult" in four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine.
The areas he evokes are those which his country claims to annex without having entirely conquered them since the start of the war on February 24.
“The situation in the People's Republics of Donetsk, Luhansk as well as in the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions is extremely difficult,” said the Russian President.
He spoke in a video for employees of the Security Service (FSB), Foreign Intelligence (SVR) and Senior Officials Protection (FSO) who celebrate their annual "professional holiday" in Russia on the 20th December.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: the events of the day live
Vladimir Putin praised the work of the members of the Russian security services who operate in "the new regions of Russia", assuring that "the people living there, Russian citizens" depend on the "protection" of these services.
“Identify traitors, spies and saboteurs”
The head of the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian presidency, himself a former agent of the Soviet secret service (KGB), called for a "maximum concentration" of the counterintelligence services.
"It is necessary to severely repress the actions of foreign secret services and to effectively identify traitors, spies and saboteurs", underlined Vladimir Putin.
In September, the Russian president announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson) partly controlled by the Russian army, after having conducted local "referendums" denounced as fictitious by kyiv, the Ukrainian capital , and Westerners.
But, in November, Ukraine took over Kherson, the capital of the eponymous region.
This is a major setback for Russia, suffered after a weeks-long counter-offensive and actions by Ukrainian partisans behind enemy lines.
