Vladimir Putin flew to Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov in Donetsk Oblast, for a surprise visit to Russiaan-occupied territory in Ukraine, according to Kremlin's press release.
Putin arrived by helicopter, and then drove through the city in a car, the Kremlin said, inspecting reconstruction works in several neighborhoods. The Kremlin also said that Putin spoke with some local residents but did not indicate the exact time when it happened.
It was Putin's second trip to newly annexed territories after he visited Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia's illegal takeover of the Black Sea peninsula.
The news comes less than two days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Friday for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, an official in his office responsible for children's rights, because of their alleged involvement in the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.
Speaking to the state RIA agency Sunday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnulin made clear that Russia was in Mariupol to stay. He said the government hoped to finish the reconstruction of its blasted downtown by the end of the year.
“People have started to return. When they saw that reconstruction is under way, people started actively returning,” Khusnulin told RIA.
Mariupol’s plight first came into focus with a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital on March 9 last year, less than two weeks after Russian troops moved into Ukraine. A week later, about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater that was serving as the city’s largest bomb shelter. Evidence obtained by the AP last spring suggested that the real death toll could be closer to 600.
A small group of Ukrainian fighters held out for 83 days in the sprawling Azovstal steel works in eastern Mariupol before surrendering, their dogged defense tying down Russian forces and coming to symbolize Ukrainian tenacity in the face of Moscow’s aggression.
The city, formerly home to more than 430,000 people, is direct Russian control since May 2022.
The story was updated with additional Associated Press reporting about Russian Deputy PM speaking to the Russian state RIA agency.
Source link
