Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in the Kremlin Thursday, Russian news agency TASS reported.
The meeting comes after unconfirmed reports in some Ukrainian and social media that Putin-ally Kadyrov was in a coma and fighting for his life. At the time, the Kremlin said it had no information on Kadyrov's health.
Elsewhere, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv needs more weaponry to combat Russian air strikes just as its allies start to look more closely at their own depleted arms stocks.
"Our warriors need more means of destroying Russian missiles, [Iranian-made] 'Shaheds' and other combat drones, as well as Russian aircraft," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
The president added that he was "grateful to everyone in the world who is already helping and is willing to ramp up assistance to our country with the means that can provide more protection against Russian terror."
There are concerns that the appetite among international allies to continue supplies of weaponry is waning. Elections in Slovakia, Poland in the next week, and in the U.S. next year, could herald seismic political shifts that change how much weaponry Ukraine receives.