- Putin was visiting a shooting range with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov
Autocrat Vladimir Putin has been mocked for wearing his ear protectors upside down during a visit to a Chechen shooting range ‘to avoid ruffling his thinning hair’.
The dictator was seen alongside Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, a close political and military ally, at a shooting range during a surprise visit to the region which many believed was aimed at bolstering support amid Ukraine‘s incursion on Russian soil.
But unlike Kadyrov, who wore his ear protectors over his head, the Russian leader was seen wearing them over his chin.
Major Russian blogger Rustem Adagamov posted: ‘[Putin’s] hairdresser has to style the sparse hairs so that it is not visible that the Russian president is already completely bald.
‘And headphones will ruin all the beauty.’
Autocrat Vladimir Putin (pictured, left) has been mocked for wearing his ear protectors upside down during a visit to a Chechen shooting range
He was accused of doing this to avoid ruffling his thinning hair
A man rides bicycle past the debris of a multi-storey building, destroyed few days earlier following a strike in the town of Myrnohrad, on August 21, 2024
Putin has been bolstering his military support in recent days, as Ukraine launched a second front in Russia.
Russian forces prevented a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance team from piercing the border in the western Bryansk region, about 240 km (150 miles) from the site of Ukraine’s incursion into the neighbouring Kursk region, a Russian official said.
Russia said on Wednesday that its forces had advanced in eastern Ukraine and had begun to push back Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, though a senior commander cautioned that Ukrainian forces were regrouping for another possible attack
Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said that Federal Security Service border guards and Russian military units repelled an attack by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance team on Wednesday.
He said the attempted incursion took place in the Klimovo district which borders Ukraine’s Chernihiv region. The Bryansk region lies northwest of the Kursk region where a Ukrainian incursion has been underway since early August.
Putin was in Chechnya to bolster military support
He visited a shooting range with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov (pictured, right)
Putin’s visit came amid increased Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil
Ukraine smashed through the Russian border in the Kursk region on August 6 in an attempt to force Moscow to divert troops from the rest of the front, though Russian forces have continued to advance in eastern Ukraine in recent days.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 28 drones over Russian territory, including 13 in the Volgograd region, seven in Rostov, four in Belgorod, two in Voronezh and one each in Bryansk and Kursk regions.
A fire broke out at a military facility in Russia’s southern Volgograd region after a Ukrainian drone crashed into it on Thursday, regional governor Andrei Bocharov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Bocharov said there were no casualties and did not specify what facility had been attacked, but said the attack focused on the area of the Marinovka village, where a military airbase is located.
Aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said temporary restrictions were imposed on Thursday on the Volgograd airport, which was not accepting or sending aircraft.