Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Russian-occupied Mariupol, his first visit to territory captured by his forces in the year-long conflict.
The visit was an apparent act of defiance, coming just days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him.
It also provoked outrage from Ukraine – the defense ministry likened Putin to a “thief” visiting “in the dead of night” – with the city having been reduced to ruins by Russia’s offensive.
Putin was flown to Mariupol by helicopter and toured the city’s districts in a car, footage released by Russian authorities showed.
The Russian President is shown meeting apparently surprised residents. Putin tells a man that “we need to start getting to know each other better”.
The Kremlin insisted the visit was “spontaneous”. It is not clear when it happened, although on Saturday (18) Putin visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of its annexation.
All released footage of Putin’s visit is after dark, a possible way for authorities to hide the damage.
News of the visit came after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Friday for Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. Putin has yet to comment on the warrant.
The visit is particularly provocative for Ukrainians, as Mariupol has long been a symbol of resistance that has seen some of the heaviest fighting since Russia launched its invasion.
During the trip, the Kremlin said Putin also surveyed the Mariupol coast, visiting a yacht club and a theater.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who accompanied him, spoke in detail with Putin about “ongoing construction and restoration work” in the city.
In the video, Khusnullin tells Putin: “There is a plan to rebuild it by the end of the third year. We plan for it to have a fully functional airport capable of flying to all cities in Russia and abroad.”
The Kremlin added that Putin held a meeting at the command post of the special military operation, as Russia describes the invasion, in Rostov-on-Don.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, speaking about Putin’s visit, criticized the “cynicism” and “lack of remorse”.
“The criminal always returns to the crime scene,” Podolyak said on Twitter.
Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, is located in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, and has been under direct Russian control since May 2022.
It was in Mariupol that Russian forces carried out some of their most notorious attacks, including an attack on a maternity hospital in March last year and the bombing of a theater that forced hundreds of civilians to seek refuge.
Mariupol became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance during weeks of relentless Russian attacks last year. Famously, even when most of the city had been taken, its defenders held out at the Azovstal steelworks for weeks before the fortress finally fell.
Defense analysts previously told the CNN that Russian forces tried to destroy Mariupol to make the city “easier to control”.
Of the 450,000 people who lived in the city before the war, more than a third have left.
*With information from Duarte Mendonca and Kostan Nechyporenko of CNN.
Source: CNN Brasil
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