MOSCOW -- The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited headquarters of the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

A video released by the Kremlin early Tuesday showed Putin visiting the command post for Russian forces in the southern Kherson region. It showed Putin receiving reports from the top military brass.

He then moved by helicopter to the headquarters of the Russian National Guard in the Luhansk region to hear reports about the situation there.

Russia took the Kherson and Luhansk regions into its fold along with the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions in September in a move that was rejected by most of the world as illegal annexation.

It was impossible to independently verify the footage released by the Kremlin. The trip marked a second visit by Putin to the areas that Russia occupied in Ukraine in as many months.