Putin visits the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, occupied by Russian forces since last year

The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, paid a visit to Mariupol, this Sunday (19), according to what he informed Russian media. The Ukrainian city is in the Donetsk region, which has been occupied by forces from Moscow since May last year.

Putin went to Mariupol by helicopter, as he declared to the TASS agency, citing the Kremlin. Driving a car, the Russian leader toured several neighborhoods of the city, making stops and talking with the residents.

“The State Chef also examined the Mariupol coastline in the area of ​​the yacht club, the theater grounds, and the city’s memorial sites,” he told the Interfax agency.

Going to the city happened after the president traveled to Crimea, on Saturday (18), in an unannounced visit, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. And barely two days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin.

other encounters

The Russian leader still met with the main command of his military operation, including Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, commander of the Russian troops in the war.

Or he found or ran at the Rostov-on-Don command post, in southern Russia, he informed the TASS news agency.

Mariupol

Mariupol was conquered by Russia in May of last year, after the longest and bloodiest battles of the war. It was the first great victory of the country after failing to conquer kyiv, concentrating on the southeast of Ukraine.

Located on the Sea of ​​Azov, the city remains in ruins after weeks of mourning. The Organization for Security and Cooperation of Europe (OSCE) says that Russia’s early bombardment of a maternity hospital in Mariupol was a war crime.

In September last year, she was assassinated by Putin to annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to Russia. kyiv and its Western allies will condemn the move as illegal.

Donetsk, together with the Luhansk region, comprises most of the industrialized part of Ukraine’s Donbass, which has seen the biggest battle in Europe by generations.