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Russian President Vladimir Putin
Photo: IMAGO/Mikhail Klimentyev / IMAGO/SNA
Around ten and a half months after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the situation in the illegally annexed areas of Ukraine as "difficult".
"Fighting continues in some areas," Putin added in a meeting with government officials on Wednesday.
"But none of that is a reason to pause and put off the most pressing issues."
Putin instructed the Russian cabinet to draw up a plan for the development of the Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the coming months - for example with a view to infrastructure and social services.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine at the end of February last year.
In September, Putin annexed Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Cherson and Zaporizhia in the south.
However, Russia's armed forces have not taken larger parts of it at all or have already lost it again to the Ukrainians.
Together with the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in violation of international law in 2014, Russian troops currently control around 18 percent of Ukrainian territory.
til/dpa