TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – President Vladimir Putin wasn’t present when his top military officials announced on television that Russia was withdrawing from the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. As the defense minister and chief commander in Ukraine discussed the retreat in a stiffly recited meeting on Nov. 9, Putin toured a neurological hospital in Moscow. Later that day, he gave a speech at another event but didn’t mention the pullout that was arguably Russia’s most humiliating loss in Ukraine. And he hasn’t talked about it since then. As Russia faces mounting setbacks in its war, Putin appears to have delegated delivering unpopular news to others, a tactic he also used during the coronavirus pandemic.