Kremlin spokesman Peskov makes short visit to occupied Ukraine

More than eight months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has visited the Moscow-annexed Luhansk region in the east of the country.
President Vladimir Putin's close confidant held a "training programme for representatives of the press and press offices in the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics," the Kremlin announced on Wednesday, according to the state news agency TASS.
Peskov, the most visible of Putin's spokespeople both prior to and during the war in Ukraine, has already returned from the region, the report said.
Russia annexed Luhansk - as well as the neighbouring Donetsk region and the regions of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson in southern Ukraine - in September in violation of international law, and to widespread international protest.
On Tuesday, Moscow said that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had visited the conflict zone, although the exact location of his visit was not disclosed.