Details in Kremlin video of Putin’s ‘Easter’ visit to occupied Ukraine suggest trip may have taken place last week

Vladimir Putin’s “Easter” visit to Russian military headquarters in Ukraine’s Luhansk and Kherson regions that the Kremlin publicized on Tuesday may have taken place last week, according to the independent outlet Agentstvo.

After studying a video of Putin’s trip that was initially distributed by the Kremlin’s press service, journalists noticed that the president can be heard saying to a military commander, “Easter is coming up soon, isn’t it?” The version of the video that was uploaded to the Kremlin’s official site, however, has been edited to make it sound like Putin is saying, “It’s Easter right now, isn’t it?”

According to Agentstvo, the original, undoctored version of the clip was replaced “almost immediately.”

Russian Orthodox Easter was on April 16 this year. Putin visited an Easter service at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior that evening.

When asked about the discrepancy, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin’s visit actually took place on Monday, April 17. “The fact is that Easter is celebrated for 40 days. And moreover, this is Easter week. So [Putin’s statement] was just a mistake. They jumped on this phrase and immediately started coming up with hypotheses about things that didn’t happen. The trip took place yesterday,” he said, speaking on Monday.