Russia’s Vladimir Putin offered a baffling response to a governor who briefed him on troops killed while feeding the Kremlin’s war machine in Ukraine. Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, sat down with the Russian leader during a meeting Monday, according to a transcript shared by the Kremlin. After discussing social and economic issues, Kobzev brought up troops deployed from the region and praised them for their “bravery,” noting that 192 local troops had received state awards for their supposed heroics, among them some who were killed. To illustrate his point, he somberly shared an anecdote about a “Hero of Russia” who was killed in Mariupol early last year. “He covered a grenade with his body, thereby saving his fellow soldiers,” he said, adding that “for us they are all heroes, they are in our memory, in our hearts.” Putin, not even bothering to look up from a photograph he was eyeing, muttered simply, “Tell them I said hello.” “Absolutely,” Kobzev said.
